THE GIFT OF

FLORENCE V. V. DICKEY

TO THE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES

THE DONALD R. DICKEY

LIBRARY
OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY

•

KRIDER'S

SPORTING ANECDOTES,

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE IIABITS OK

CERTAIN VARIETIES

AMERICAN GAME

EDITED BY H. MILNOR KLAPP

PHILADELPHIA:
A. MART, LATE CAREY & HART,

I 2 fi CHESTNUT STREET.

Knu-red according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by

JOHN KRIDER,

the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.

j u. JUNES, PIUXTEH.
3 A Carter's Alley.

3J3

TO

THE SPORTSMEN

AMERICA,

THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

BY THE A U Til OK

535174

PREFACE.

In offering these unpretending pages to the
public, it is simply the wish of the author and
his editor to draw its attention more particu-
larly to American field sports, and the reader
will soon find, that, avoiding the tedium of a
regular treatise or manual, we speak right on,
with the hope to interest and amuse. If suc-
cessful in this, our point is gained.

CONTENTS.

PAUL

Familiar Introductory remarks on the character of the Dog, 5

Snipe Shooting, - 40

Woodcock Shooting, 73

The Rice Bunting or Reed Bird, &c., - 113

The Grass Plover, - 118

The Bull-headed or Golden Plover, 123

Rail Shooting, 12(»

Partridge Shooting, - loT

Duck Shooting, 218

Canvass-Back Duck, - - 21'.*

Red-headed Duck, - 221

American Widgeon, 222

Scaup Duck, 22")

Canada Goose, - • 254

Pigeon-Match Shooting, 272

Field Dogs, - - 27*

KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

FAMILIAR INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE
CHARACTER OF THE DOG.

IT has always seemed to us a thing worthy of
note that the dog alone, of the entire brute crea-
tion, should especially attach himself to man.
Many instances are, indeed, upon record where
animals of a different species have manifested an
extraordinary affection for particular individuals.
Among the Arabs, by whom the animal is hu-
manely treated, the horse stands pre-eminent in
this respect; and who has not read of the Cos-
sack's steed, which

" Obeyed his voice and came to call,
And knew him in the midst of all,
Though thousands were around, and night,
Without a star, pursued her flight."

This, which would seem sufficiently poetic
as related of the horse, is literally a matter of
fact with the dog, whom Byron, as every one
knows, has selected, in more instances than

6 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

one, to satirize mankind. However, misan-
thropy apart, in sober prose it cannot be denied,
that from the moment Dash opens his eyes
on external things, he recognizes the presence
of man, and soon follows his footsteps as the
humblest and most devoted of his servitors.
Nay, many a sportsman has noticed the puppies
of a litter, not yet arrived at the momentous ninth
day, strive to lick the hand which caressed them,
and watched the superannuated pointer leave his
bed in the shade, and still cheerily constant to
his text, totter on to the field at the heels of his
master. Perhaps the reader has often been
amused, in the street, when observing the air of
grave importance with which one dog, after a
brief colloquy with another, will hurry on to join
his owner. There is something actually distress-
ing, too, in the anxiety manifested in the looks,
voice and actions of a lost dog. Superstition, as
usual, has appropriated to herself the prolonged
and melancholy howl, with which he' seems to
abandon himself to despair, when his search has
proved unavailing, and night, in a strange place,
settles down at last upon his houseless head. On
such occasions he will often seat himself on his
haunches beneath the nearest window, and, point-
ing his nose towards heaven, appal the ears of

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 7

the inmates with his boding and ill-omened cry.
One may readily imagine the effect produced in
the sick chamber, or at the family fire-side, by
these disheartening sounds. If, like the wander-
ing harper, he intends his distracting discord as
an appeal to the sympathies of the good people
within, it is almost superfluous to say that his
expectations are illy repaid, since we have no
doubt that the reader will agree with us that there
hardly exists, within the range of the census, that
super-excellent Samaritan, who has ever opened
his heart or his doors to a stray cur. The
cry, however, like that of the famishing wolf,
appears to be a mere ebullition of despair. Some
dogs, however, whose dispositions, we are inclined
to think, are slightly tinged with romance, are
much in the habit of serenading " the refulgent
queen of night," in this interesting way. In
general, though, be it said, the dog's star is his
master's eye, and he wisely leaves the celestial
orbs to poets, lovers and astronomers, as those
whom they most concern. We have never heard
that the dog of our North American Indian dif-
fers at all from his civilized brother in this last
respect, although, in accordance with the untu-
tored creed of his master, he might, with great
consistency, cast an occasional glance towards the

8 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

happy hunting grounds, when game was espe-
cially scarce in the terrestrial forests. In large
cities, where the dog is seldom called upon to
fight, or even die, for his master, with a whim-
sical degree of apprehension he is observant to
share in his every humor, whether it be to chase
strange cats in the garden, dive for stones in a
horse-bucket, point a partridge in a basket, or,
semper re composita, to take a strut with the dan-
dies on the sidewalk. But there is one thing
which he drops his tail against, and therein con-
sists his claim to gentility — he has a soul above
work. Travellers may tell you long stories about
the dogs of Labrador and Newfoundland, and
even in our own land you may occasionally hear
of a butter churn, a small threshing machine, or
something of that sort, turned by dogs ; but take
our word for it, that in these very instances,
which they make so much noise about, the animal
is reduced from a state of humble companionship
to that of absolute slavery, and that every mo-
ment's labor eked out of him is through pure fear
of the lash. The sledge dogs, by their incessant
snarling and fighting in gears, sufficiently show
their abhorrence of the system; let but a wild
reindeer cross their path through the snow, and
off goes the entire pack in full chase, regardless

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 9

of sledge or driver, from the incumbrance of the
last of which they, indeed, speedily rid them-
selves. We have heard it acknowledged in the
far west, where Tray has sometimes been set to
churn or to spin, that, like most other unwilling
servitors, if not closely watched, he is seldom to
be found when his services are most particularly
required. The man who would advocate the
propriety of placing a dog in a cart or a tread-
mill, deserves to be shunned by the entire canine
race ; and where, we would ask, is the- Pharisee
of such superlative leaven as to deny all sympa-
thy with that scarcely less noble being, whom
the proudest monarchs and mightiest minds of
the universe, in every age, have made their com-
panion?

What ! force Hark, Beppo, Towser and Dash
— not to speak of Silver, Mountain and Blanche,
whom Shakspeare has immortalized— -force these
to work ! Why, what would the dogs of Egypt,
who once had divine honors paid to them, say to
this? Reflect, gentle reader, how our Leather-
stocking — that familiar and much admired crea-
tion of the genius which has recently died from
among us — reflect how he would have looked, if
some pumpkin-headed squatter had demanded
the loan of his hound, to set in a rustic tread-

10 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

mill. We think we see the indignant old hunter
grasping "Killdeer" like a vice, as, with back-
woods emphasis, he tells the oaf that "the thing
aire out of reason and agin all natur." When
your dog degenerates and becomes vicious, then,
if you are conscientiously opposed to capital
punishment, condemn him, if you please, to hard
labor ; but while he is equal to the sample of his
race, ennobled as it is by the unanimous decree
of mankind, for your sake, as well as his own,
treat him. accordingly.

We will now, with the reader's permission,
relate an example of the curious effect which this
forced derogation of character, once produced <m
the conduct of a respectable house-dog.

A gentleman was walking along the main street
of the fine old borough of German town, when he
was met by a large dog harnessed to a sort of
tilbury, in which was seated a diminutive invalid,
the son of a storekeeper in the place. The boy
held the lines in his hand, with an important
look on his pale face ; but the aspect of the dog
was sulky and malapropos, as if keenly conscious
of his degradation. With his tail down and his
ears back, he moved on slowly and unwillingly
enough, until a setter, which was in attendance
upon the pedestrian, came up, and halting on the

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 11

pike, cocked his ears, perhaps with concern at
the pitiful condition to which the unfortunate
custodian of the threshold was reduced. No
sooner had the sullen eyes of the latter fallen
upon the free and life-like figure of Beppo, than,
uttering a savage growl, he flew from the ele-
vated sidew-alk full at the other's throat, pitching
out the invalid, overturning the Tom Thumb
tilbury, and scouring along the road after the
innocent cause of the catastrophe, who, upon
being thus charged, as it were, by a chariot, fled
as if death were at his heels. Whether, in this
case, the grocer's dog imagined that he detected
something quizzical in the expression of the set-
ter's face, or was merely infuriated at the diffe-
rence of their respective conditions at the moment,
is a matter of doubt. The effect produced, how-
ever, was solely attributable to the presence of
the stranger's dog, since it appeared that the boy
had been daily in the habit of airing himself in
this way for some time previous. The fugitive
took sanctuary with our jovial host of the But-
tonwood, and the assailant, it concerns us to state,
received a severe threshing for his indirect
though outrageous exertions in favor of canine
freedom.

Dogs have been known to form offensive and

12 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

defensive alliances with each other, which, like
those of the princes of the earth, are liable to
abrupt and disagreeable conclusions.

A physician of this city had in his stable a
terrier, which formed a league of this kind with
an individual of the same stock, belonging to a
sugar refiner in the vicinity. The chief end of
this alliance, it was observed, was to mount guard
at a corner of the court on which the stable was
located, and make battle with any thing in the
shape of perambulating dog flesh which might
happen to pass that way. Now, there lived, about
a square above the court, a Dutch baker, who
possessed a large dog, which regularly attended
his master as he went his morning rounds, with
"the staff of life" on his shoulder. This was a
quiet, sleek, well-intentioned animal, but a few
months out of the days of his puppyhood. His
name was Tim, and we can safely aver that he
was a dog of repute, harboring no evil designs of
any kind in his head; which, to tell the truth,
was very far from being the case with the two
terriers.

Time after time had the latter assailed and
beaten the baker's dog, and no redress could the
sufferer obtain, except, perhaps, when some
vagrant boy, in his zeal for fair play, would shy

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 13

a stone at the heads of the two bullies. The peo-
ple of the neighborhood were too busy to attend
to the quarrels of dogs ; so that, unless the fates
interfered in some unforeseen way, there really
appeared to be no salvation for Tim, since, in the
ordinary course of things, there was every pros-
pect that the breath of life was eventually to be
worried out of his nostrils.

Months passed away, and the dog increased
in size and strength, but the evil under which he
had so long howled was by no means abated. So
far from it, indeed, that he was now obliged to
leave the baker every morning at the first street
above the court, and make the circuit of the
square to escape the expectant fangs of these two
sons of Cerberus.

We have no doubt that this troubled Tim
exceedingly, for a close observer of these saga-
cious animals will tell you, that if there is any
thing which a faithful dog takes a praiseworthy
pride in, it is in appearing to the best advantage
in the eyes of his master. It is but fair to state
that the two tyrants sometimes engaged in terri-
ble combats with strange dogs, and that, so far as
we can learn, they invariably came off victorious.
No doubt these desperate contests, witnessed from
afar, struck additional terror into the heart of
Tim.

14 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

However, it so happened, that upon a certain
New Year's day, as the doctor and the sugar
refiner were conversing in the street, they saw
the baker coming towards them, with his sleek,
black dog behind him. The two tyrants, as
usual, were sitting at the corners of the court,
on the qui vive — the bigger, wrhose name was
Flame, ensconced on a fire-plug, and the lesser,
who was called Smoke, watching under a lamp-
post. The name of the court, we had for-
gotten to state, was Concord Place, which was
somewhat at variance with the character of its
guardians, although Relief alley, a narrow pas-
sage directly opposite, was no misnomer, so far
as it is connected with the anecdote, inasmuch
as it had often saved Tim, at need, from the teeth
of his determined assailants.

"Now," said the doctor, "let us watch the
motions of these three dogs."

"I have often noticed them before," said the
other, " and the baker's will certainly leave him
at the next street."

But whether it was that the evil had arrived
at that pitch at which endurance ceases to be a
virtue, even in a dog, or that the day being the
first of the year, Tim was determined to begin it,
more magistri, with a new talley, is open to free

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 15

discussion; we only, as historians, faithfully
chronicle the fact, that, with head and tail erect,
deviating not a hair's breadth from his route,
Tim sturdily stuck at the Dutchman's heels.

The two tyrants bristled their spines, erected
their cropt ears, and waited for the moment to
pounce upon him. The baker stopped at a cus-
tomer's door, delivered his bread, and passed on;
Tim followed; Flame glanced at Smoke, and, as
was the rule of warfare observed by the bellige-
rents, the latter advanced to commence the on-
slaught, nothing doubting of an easy victory.

But the instant that he came sufficiently near,
Tim, the late meek and gentle disciple of endu-
rance, savagely seized him by the back, and lift-
ing him clear from the ground, shook him in a
manner which, however delightful to the doctor,
must have been as disagreeable as unexpected to
him.

11 Served him exactly right," said the sugar
refiner, gruffly, while the doctor cried encore ;
and a quick eye, accustomed to read the physi-
ognomies of quadrupeds, might have noticed
something of unpleasant surprise in the looks of
the chief tyrant. Nevertheless, quickly descend-
ing from his post of observation, he boldly ad-
vanced to the rescue of his comrade, who was no

16 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

match for Tim, now that his ire was fully awa-
kened.

The beholders were now all expectation to see
what the baker's dog would do in this emer-
gency. The result was not long in doubt; for,
as Flame approached, Tim gave Smoke a last
severe shake, which effectually settled him for
the nonce, and meeting his chief assailant hall
way, grappled him with a fury, which, as he was
really the stronger dog of the two, landed him on
his back in the kennel, in a moment." Smoke,
beholding this with increased dismay, fled in
inglorious haste, through Relief alley, leaving the
field to the two remaining combatants, who
fought vigorously for a few minutes longer, the
one loath to lose his ancient supremacy, and the
other determined to provide anew for the contin-
gencies of the future. At length the scale ot
victory turned — the doctor's dog cried miser ecor-
dia; and Tim, after fairly vanquishing the two
redoubtable tyrants, trotted on, like a knight-
errant of old, to rejoin the baker's banner.

"Now," said the doctor, "that dog has taught
us a lesson, which the crowned heads of Europe
might read with advantage."

"Yes," answered the other; and he must have
premeditated the action, for, to my certain know-

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 17

ledge, nothing could have previously induced
him to pass that court when your dog or mine
was in sight."

"It looks very like the reasoning power, I con-
fess," said the doctor; " but see, here comes your
dog back."

The most curious part of the affair now occur-
red; for as Smoke came nigh to Flame, for the
purpose, no doubt, of comparing injuries, the
latter, who was licking his wounds, instantly
flew upon him, and, without paying the least
regard to their former relations, inflicted upon
him a tremendous mauling. At this sight the
physician, unwilling to lose his professional gra-
vity in the street, started instanter for his office ;
while the sugar refiner, albeit not possessed of so
quick a sense of the ludicrous, retreated to a
counting room in a huge smoky building across
the way. The alliance was, however, dissolved,
and the two discomfitted tyrants were never seen
together from that instant.

In this anecdote, for the truth of which we can
vouch, we have strikingly displayed, first, a mu-
tual understanding, resulting in a regular alli-
ance for the purpose of aggressive warfare ; next,
endurance, amounting almost to abject cowardice,
on the part of a third dog ; then a noble resolu-

18 KRIDEIVS SPORTING ANECDOTES.

tion to resist oppression to the last; and, lastly,
a violent dissolution of the league, consequent
upon the signal defeat of the two tyrants.

We will now relate a few examples of the
inveterate pertinacity with which dogs that have
once worried sheep, seize every opportunity of
indulging, by stealth, in their flagitious inclina-
tions; of the cunning which they display in
endeavoring to elude detection, and of the arti-
fices which they make use of, to induce other
better disposed individuals to join them in their
marauding expeditions. These have been long
known to the world, and still furnish a favorite
theme, on a winter's night, at the farmer's fire-
side.

Not a villager but has his say on the subject ;
not a herdsman but can add his woful experience
of the slaughter. Sixty, seventy, and even a
hundred sheep, worried in a single night, have
been the astounding effects of this destructive
propensity. In parts of the country where large
flocks are raised, the dog, as representing his
race, figures full as often in the imagination of
the youthful grazier on the prongs of a good steel
pitchfork, as he does, when arrayed in his glory,
as "honest Tray" or "faithful Towser," of the
school book.

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 19

- Short shrift is accorded to the robber, when
caught red-footed and in the act, or tracked from
the scene of blood, through the tell-tale snow, to
the unconscious homestead.

Vain are the entreaties of the house-wife or
children, if, indeed, they find voices to plead for
the midnight assassin, who, apart from his secret
acts of villainy, may have been a very serviceable
animal. The master himself has little to say,
since slay the dog or pay for the sheep is the
grim alternative. The axe, the rope, or the fowl-
ing piece, settles the matter on the spot; while
the very porch, which has so long sheltered the
culprit, seems half aghast with silent horror.

The propensity, which is chiefly confined to
curs and mongrels, undoubtedly descends from
the wild state of the race, along with other pecu-
liarities of less import, common to the entire spe-
cies; such as making lairs in out of the way
places, hiding bones and surplus food in the
earth, taking solitary journeys at night, sometimes
to visit an acquaintance, but more frequently to
hunt up mischief.

A dog has been known to leave his home after the
family had retired, and go to a farm-house several
miles distant, to join a comrade; after some pre-
liminary snuffing and capering on the porch, the

20 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

two have started for a third farm, six miles from
the first, and worried sheep. In this instance
each animal was found in his house before sun-
rise, and it was only by their tracks in the snow
that their misdeeds were brought home to them.

All this reminds us strongly of the wolf. The
following incident, said to have occurred many
years ago, in the state of Virginia, west of the
Blue Ridge, bears a still closer comparison with
the deeds of that wily and ferocious animal.

A storekeeper, in a village in that part of the
country, possessed a remarkably intelligent dog,
of the mixed Poodle and Newfoundland stock.
He was of service to his master in guarding his
property, and had been taught to do many useful
things, which had become the talk of the country
side. He would convey parcels home to a cus-
tomer, carry his master's boots to the shoemaker,
search diligently for any thing which had been
lost in the fields or the roadside, patiently watch
an article to which his attention had been directed,
and really seemed to comprehend any command
which was given him.

Having been well cared for, in spite of the
cross, he had attained an extraordinary size, and
was possessed of great activity for so heavy an
animal. His coat was coarse and heavy; and, in

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 21

allusion to its tawny color and something of mag-
nanimity in his looks, he was called Lion. Of a
mild, peaceable disposition, though brave as his
royal namesake, he was a favorite with all visit-
ors to the store, and only an object of terror and
dislike to thieves and marauders. His master
had refused large offers for him ; and at the period
to which we particularly refer, he was in the
very prime of his days.

About five miles north-west of the village and
three from the main road, was a track of hilly
land, known in the township as the Hampton
farm, a large portion of which was devoted to the
rearing of sheep.

The Hampton farm had, at different periods,
suffered, as was supposed, from depredations of
wolves, which, though becoming scarce in the
forests of the vicinity, were still occasionally to
be met with.

For more than a year not an individual had
been shot in the township; nevertheless, sheep
were still worried, from time to time, and suspi-
cion at last fell upon the dogs of the neighbor-
hood. But the strictest scrutiny failed to detect
a single plague spot; and, accordingly, the whole
corporation of curs was pronounced to be sound .

The charge then reverted to the wolves; but,

22 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

though traps were set on the hills, and a watch
kept, no signs of a wolf could be perceived.

A few nights after vigilance had been relaxed,
a sheepcot was broken into, and a number of the
flock either slain outright or so mangled as to
render it necessary to put the knife to their
throats.

The grazier and his men were greatly enraged
at this, and a price of twenty dollars — a large
sum for the neighborhood — was forthwith set
upon the depredator's head.

From the circumstance of there being no snow
upon the ground at the time, it was, of course,
impossible to track him; but a close inspection
of the premises established the fact, that the ani-
mal was alone and of unusual size. From this
the conclusion was arrived at that it was a wolf,
which had its den at a great distance, most pro-
bably in the mountains at the foot of which the
farm was located.

Several good hunters turned out with their
dogs, but utterly failed to strike the trail, although
the search was continued for several days. At
last, however, it so chanced that as one of these
men was crossing a piece of waste land between
the sheephills and the main road, an hour or two
before dawn, he saw, by the waning light of the

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 03

moon, an animal, which he immediately conjec-
tured to be a wolf, rising an elevation on his left,
at a long, loping pace, making, it appeared, for a
run about two hundred yards distant.

The man stopped and cocked his rifle, but
having no dog with him — his own having been
worn out with the previous day's run — prudently
forbore to fire so long as there existed a doubt
of his being able to sight, a mortal part. The
creature passed him at full speed, directing its
course for the run, whither the hunter cautiously
followed. He soon perceived that it had broken
the ice, and halted in the water, and under
cover of inequalities in the ground, he was ena-
bled to steal, unperceived, within good covering
distance. Taking deliberate aim, he pulled the
trigger, and the brute, leaping up with a loud
yell, dropped dead on the bank. The hunter
carefully reloaded his rifle, loosened his knife in
its sheath, and, with his finger at the guard of
his piece, slowly advanced to the spot; when,
lo ! instead of a grey wolf, to his utter amaze-
ment, he immediately recognized, even by the
imperfect light, the lifeless but still quivering
carcass of the storekeeper's favorite dog.

After his astonishment had a little subsided,
he took off the scalp, and leaving the body where

24 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

it fell, made the best of his way to the grazier's
house.

The body of the recreant, suspended by the
neck in a wagon, was driven in triumph down
to the village, and subsequent inquiries left not
a lingering doubt that Lion, with all his remark-
able qualities, was, after all, but a wolf in dog's
habiliments.

It was remembered that at certain periods he
had refused his food, and appeared sleepy and
cross; and, upon comparing dates, the parties
concerned discovered that these were the very
days after the havoc had been committed.

He was actually engaged in washing the blood
of six sheep from his body when the hunter shot
him ; and, upon being satisfied of this, the whole
village, with the bereaved storekeeper at their
head, while they could not help deploring the
end of so fine an animal, sang Te Deum over the
fall of so accomplished a villain.

The honest hunter received his reward, and
was ever afterwards known by the soubriquet of
" Sampson," inasmuch as it was he who slew
the Lion.

All half-grown puppies, from a natural fond-
ness for mischief, which instigates them to tear
a hat or a shawl to shreds, and to pursue any

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 05

object that flies from them, have a disposition to
chase sheep. A single timely correction is suf-
ficient to cure this; but when a dog once
indulges in sheep killing by stealth, the chain
becomes an imperfect check upon the habit, and
it is advisable, in all cases, to subject him to far-
mer's law. A popular English writer has said:
"in the human mind, ill regulated, there is a
dark desire for the forbidden;" the same remark,
in certain cases, is applicable to the dog. Among
all the instances which have come under our
notice, we remember but one in which the ani-
mal was influenced by necessity, and not from
choice. The nearer the dog approaches to purity
in stock, the nobler is his character, and the less
he is addicted to evil ways.

We have never heard the clean bred pointer
accused of sheep killing. The setter is not so
free from taint. Indeed, he has been known, in
one instance, at least, to forsake his professional
business and assail a flock of sheep, which has
come in his way in the course of a day's sport.
This dog, said to have been an imported English
stock, unaccountably left his master, in the
stubbles, and a few minutes afterwards was
actually seen, by the proprietor of the land,
throttling sheep in an adjoining field. The man

26 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

set off to his house for the gun, and during his
absence, the dog, recalled by his master's whistle,
returned to his side, ranged out, and pointed ;
then stealing away, while the shooter was
charging, went back to his nefarious work, just
as the avenger of innocence, armed with one of
those long-stocked, old-fashioned pieces, which
so often sent death into the British ranks in the
days of '76, made his timely appearance upon
the scene. The ancient revolutioner was
promptly levelled, and, of course, the malefactor
died the death.

He was in his third year, and, as far as could
be ascertained, this was his first transgression.

We have heard of another case, where a set-
ter, suspected of a similar piece of atrocity, was
penned up for the night with a pugnacious old
ram, who, it was supposed, would not fail to kill
or cure him before morning.

The supposition was ill-founded, however,
for at daylight the patriarch of the flock was
found stark and stiff, with his throat terribly
torn, while the setter, wholly uninjured, was
wagging his tail to get out.

There is a loping dog, a cross between the
pointer and setter — sometimes rough and some-
times smooth — which we would caution our
young readers to have nothing to do with. There

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 27

is a taint of the hound or cur in his back stock ;
he has no style in his hunting, is occasionally
sullen and ferocious, displays comparatively
little affection for his master, and often proves
to be an inveterate sheep-killer.

Mr. Krider once owned a dog of this descrip-
tion, which was possessed of no good qualities,
except an excellent nose and great steadiness on
his point. He was gaunt, coarse:coated, had a
gloomy and reserved air, as if constantly brood-
ing over his misdeeds, and showed so little con-
cern for his master's interests as to be constantly
snarling and snapping at his customers. Being
unwilling to slay the brute, and supposing that
his temper was tried in the store, his owner pre-
sented him to one of his workmen. In a few
days he bit the man's wife, when his new master
incontinently discharged a load of buckshot in
his breast, and dismissed Growler to the shades
forever. Some time after his exit, the farmer
from whom he had been purchased, acknow-
ledged that he had strongly suspected him of
destroying sheep.

What a contrast to these renegades does the
well-known shepherd's dog of the old world
present ! His instinct, said to be superior to all
other varieties, is solely directed to the preser-
vation of the flock.

28 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

How faithfully, how completely, he fulfils the
duties of a guardian, the reader is, doubtless,
well aware. In the vast fazendas, or cattle
estates, of southern Brazil, where the flocks have
a multitude of enemies, two dogs are considered
sufficient to shepherd a thousand sheep. But
these dogs, as soon as whelped, are suckled by
a ewe ; no food is given to them ; at night they
are shut up in the fold; during the day they
accompany the flock to the field ; and when full
grown, instinctively assume the office of its
guardian and protector. While the flock is
grazing, the vigilance of the guardian, directed
alike against the hordes of wild dogs, which
infest the plains, and the birds of prey, which
pick out the eyes of the lambs, is argus-eyed
and unceasing. When a ewe lambs in the
field, and the lamb is too weak to follow its
mother, one dog will remain for some time beside
it; if he finds that it is still unable to walk, as
evening draws near, he carefully takes it in his
mouth and carries it home to the fold.

They have the same wild and melancholy
aspect, and the same indisposition to associate
with strange dogs, which distinguishes the shep-
herd's dog of the Alps and the Pyrenees.

Here the naturalist has a grand picture for
contemplation and study, for here we have ex-

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 29

hibited, in a curious light, two traits which most
ennoble the dog — fidelity and courage. No\v to
shift the portrait.

Some of our readers will remember to have
noticed, a year or two since, three dogs, without
masters, wandering together about the streets
of the city — sometimes seen lying, side by side.
on a door step, or in the shade of a garden wall ;
sometimes foraging in the alleys and empty
market houses ; but from their deformed appear-
ance, constant companionship, and absolute dis-
connection with man, always impressing the
mind of the beholder with a feeling of desolation
strangely foreign to the scene. One, a female,
with a broken limb, curiously distorted, was a
gaunt, hollow-eyed brute, upon whose infirmi-
ties the others seemed to attend, as we observed
that she was always the first to move on after a
halt; another, an old mongrel mastiff, had lost
his upper lip, which gave him a very unsightly
look ; but the third was perfect in his parts — a
meek, mild-eyed cur, who appeared to have
joined the two misanthropes because he had been
fairly forsaken by the rest of the world.

There was something strongly expressive of
apathetical indifference to the beings around
them, in the aspect of the two first. Strictly

30 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

shunning the society of their race, they seemed
an isolated community in the midst of strangers.
The human voice, no matter how kindly tem-
pered, produced no visible effect, except to make
them move listlessly on. The last would acknow-
ledge sympathy with man, by wagging his tail
when spoken to ; but no artifice could induce
him to loiter behind, when his companions had
once resumed their way.

Some mysterious feeling appeared to bind
them inseparably together. They never dis-
agreed, and were always in good condition. We
have been assured, by a gentleman of the highest
respectability, that his family have repeatedly
seen the last, when food was offered him, quietly
go and deposit it at the feet of his friends.

And thus, for several successive seasons, the
strange trio were seen in various parts of the
crowded city — always together, and always by
themselves — lodging, no one cared where, and
eventually disappearing, no one knew how.*

* One fact, which had nearly escaped our memory, while it
proves that even the maternal instinct did not interfere with their
bond of attachment, goes to show that the fern ale must, at the period
referred to, have had some place of shelter. The last time we saw
them, her appearance indicated that she had littered but a few
days previous; but where her whelps were concealed, or where she
rejoined her companions on their daily rounds, we are unable to
say.

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 31

We have no comments to offer upon this sin-
gular alliance. Bulwer, in his " Children of
Night," makes Messrour, the immortal, say,
that in a period of five thousand years, spent in
the study of man, he had not yet discovered the
mysteries in the heart of a boor ; how then, shall
we attempt to pry through that impenetrable
veil which the Creator of all things, in his Om-
niscence, has placed between man made after
his own image, and the brutes over which he
has given him sway?

Dogs sometimes manifest a taste for the sweets
of liberty in rather a whimsical way.

A friend of ours once owned a beautiful setter,
who, unfortunately, preferring a wilderness to a
garden, uprooted rose-bushes, grubbed up gera-
niums, tore down grape vines, and made bone
depositories of strawberry beds. He was, of
course, put on chain. On the first opportunity
he disappeared, and for weeks nothing was heard
of his whereabouts. At last they found him in
the street, with a collar on his neck, bearing the
name and residence of a new owner. An expla-
nation ensued, when it was discovered that he
had attached himself to the person in question,
with whom he had been residing ever since his
disappearance, and in whose company he had

32 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

repeatedly passed his old master's residence,
without manifesting the least signs of recogni-
tion. Indeed, from his apparent indifference to
all parts of the city, and his off-hand way of
domiciliating in his new quarters, it had been
supposed that he had strayed away from some
stranger, en route to a distant part of the
country. He was again chained to his old dog-
house, and, in the course of time, again escaped.
A month elapsed, and his disconsolate master,
while in the act of leaving Mr. Krider's store,

o

situated on the north-east corner of Second and
Walnut streets, between the two principle mar-
ket houses of the city, again encountered his
lost property, in excellent condition — this time
hand and glove with a butcher's boy, who was
carrying home a basket of meat.

Our friend at once stopped short, planting
himself before the bulkhead, directly in the
dog's way.

The animal passed the critical spot with the
utmost nonchalance, and was wending his way
to parts unknown, when his master, provoked
as well as amused with the cut direct, pro-
nounced, in a voice of thunder, the awful word
"Mart!"

"I really thought," said he, in relating the anec-

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 33

dote, "the dog would have sunk down through
the bricks. It was laughable to notice the rueful
countenance of the scapegrace, as he crouched
on the pavement, with a slight twitch of his tail,
one eye fixed imploringly on me, and the other
turned towards the boy, over whose chubby face
was beginning to steal the conviction that they
two must part. The affair reminded me strongly,
at the moment, of two line's in one of Scott's
border ballads, which may thus be parodied :

The conscious cur fell to the ground,

And inly muttered, 'found! found! found !' "

It is now some years since Mart slipped his
collar in toto, for he continued in his vagrant
habits to the last, at one time attaching himself
to a rigger in Reed street, and upon another to
a recruiting sergeant of marines. Influenced
by his impatience of restraint, he may, possibly,
have gone off to join the Mormons.

His master, with a pertinacity almost as hu-
morous, insists upon it that he will yet turn up,
when least expected, and is yearly in the habit
of visiting the menagerie, in the hopes of finding
him attached to a caravan.

This dog was of hardy constitution, a great
ranger, and uniformly travelled a fast gait.

Dogs are a superstitious race. We have seen

34 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

them tremble and skulk from the sight of their
shadows moving on the wall. Like horses, they
are subject to violent paroxysms of fright. We
have heard of a watch-dog that was frightened into
convulsions by the sudden apparition of a man
in a white coat ; and the most curious exhibition
of mortal fear which we ever witnessed, was
consequent upon the introduction of an Isle of
Sky dog to a hideous Paraguay ape.

Dogs dream. We have seen the animal start
on its legs from an uneasy slumber, and bark
vaguely, yet vehemently, as if at some object in
the shadow land. On being spoken to it ceased
at once, and, whining and mumbling, again ad-
dressed itself to sleep. No doubt can be enter-
tained of the fact that, in some degree, at least,
their " lives are two-fold," and that they some-
times re-enact in sleep the drama of their waking
hours.

A merchant of this city was possessed of a
poodle, which for years had been in the habit of
bringing him his boots at a certain hour in the
morning, preparatory to their usual walk to the
counting room. The dog usually slept at the
foot of the staircase, at the second landing of
which was an entry, leading to his master's bed-
chamber.

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 35

The latter was once aroused, at the dead hour
of night, by a strange scratching at the door,
which being cautiously opened, old Hugo walked
slowly in, with his eyes wide open and a boot in
his mouth. He gravely deposited this at the
merchant's feet and started for its fellow, but,
upon being called back and reproved, seemed at
once to comprehend his mistake.

He then took up the boot, and as the voice of
the watchman sounded the hour, looking ridicu-
lously enough, sneaked down stairs to bed again.

This is the only case of somnambulism in the
brute creation, which we remember to have
heard of.

The same person was afterwards attacked by
a fit of the gout, which confined him to his house
several weeks.

On the morning succeeding the attack the
boots appeared in his chamber, as usual; the
invalid pointed to his swollen feet, swathed in
flannel and resting upon pillows, whereupon the
.poodle, mistaking his meaning, flew furiously at
the bandages, and commenced tearing them off,
giving the unfortunate sufferer the most exquisite
agony in his well-meant but injudicious attempts
to remove the embargo on the boots.

But to come nearer home. Observe your dog

36 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

when he feeds — hew his tail goes and his eyes
pour out thankfulness ! At every mouthful he
looks up to show his gratitude. We will venture
to say that few Christians feel a livelier sense of
devotion at their meals. If he indulges in any
mirth at his dinner, it is all of a grateful order.
The hand which feeds him is his divinity, and,
of course, he looks no higher in returning his
thanks.

Turn now to his distant connexion, the cat.
How she growls, like a tiger over its prey ! Mark
how she gorges, only purring and looking with
fierce eyes for more when the last morsel is
finished. After that, she washes her whiskers
with a world-wise air, and the entire line of Adam
is nothing to her until she grows hungry again.

There is a deal of point, after all, in the juve-
nile line :

"Behold Miss Pussy! how happy she looks!"

We have a sort of reverence for the authority
of the little book quoted from.

It is ever associated in our mind with the per-
son of a deceased old lady, who, we believe, led
half the people in the district in which we were
born, through its pictured pages.

It will not do, gentle reader, to cavil at its
couplets. If Grimalkin is happy, as the learned

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 37

authority intimates, let us not inquire too closely
into the sources of her tranquility. Let us rather
go back to Ponto, whom we left quietly eating
his dinner.

Well he repays, by a lifetime of fidelity, all the
care which you may bestow upon him. What-
ever class of dogs he may belong to, according to
his capacity, he will studiously contribute to your
interests or your sports.

He is invaluable to the sportsman and the
agriculturist, and the careful housekeeper will
hardly sleep sound o' nights, unless Towser be
loose in the yard.

He is fond of fun, too, and really epicurean in
his mode of seeking comfort. Much he prizes a
snug, warm lodging in winter, and a perfect lux-
ury it is to see him enjoying a roll upon the
sunny sod on some cool, clear day in the fall,
when the north-west wind is stripping the trees,
and the plaintive calls of the covey, scattered,
perhaps, by the hawk, are heard over by the
stubble-field.

It is a pleasant thing, too, to see him lying
close in the woods, watching your eye as you
stand, while the last rays of the setting sun red-
den the solemn trunks, and still communing
with autumn, you feel, as it were, the breath of
3

38 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

of winter afar off, as a chill wind sighs through
the fading foliage, or mournfully rustles the
withered leaves. Poor Ponto! though he feel
not the strange delight which waits upon the
change of season — though he knows not the twi-
light hour, yet well it becomes him to live the
comrade of kings and princes, and well he de-
serves to be remembered by the genius which
hallows the scene.

Bulwer, Burns, Byron and Scott, have all
owned strong sympathies with the dog.

If our young friends should be fond of field
sports, they should never rate the value of Ponto
solely by his professional accomplishments of
finding and pointing game. As he is the zeal-
ous adjutor and partaker of your diversions, he
should also, in some measure, be your compa-
nion and your friend.

You may smile, but well will it be with you ,
when the flush of youth is passed, if you do not
then rate his fidelity higher than the standard of
friendship, as it exists in the gay world.

You will find nothing superior in pathos to the
tales which are told of the faithfulness of the
dog.

It is not many months since we saw in the
public prints, an account of a party of hunters,

CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 39

who had discovered, in the far west, the corpse
of an Indian, extended on the prairie, surrounded
by a gang of wolves, which a famishing dog still
kept at bay. What a picture for an artist to de-
lineate, and how forcibly it reminds us of the
touching lines of the poet !

" And he was faithful to a corpse,
And kept the birds and beasts
Which hungered there, at bay."

When those whom you are most bound to love
and reverence, have passed down to the grave —
when friends fall off, and the darker side of hu-
manity becomes more and more apparent, as you
walk through life — then, and not till then, you
may learn to prize the fidelity of a dog.

His leaping heart is still for thine,

Without a thought of guile,
And in his eyes his truth doth shine,

As beauty may not smile.

SNIPE SHOOTING.

WILSON'S SNIPE— SCOLOPAX WILSONII.

Description. — " The snipe is eleven inches
long, and seventeen in extent; the bill is more
than two and a half inches long, fluted length-
wise, of a brown color, and black towards the
tip, where it is very smooth while the bird is
alive, but soon after it is killed, becomes dim-
pled, like the end of a thimble ; crown black,
divided by an irregular line of pale brown;
another broader one, of the same tint, passes
over each eye ; from the bill to the eye, there is
a narrow, dusky line ; neck and upper part of
the breast pale brown, variegated with touches
of white and dusky ; chin, pale ; back and sca-
pulars, deep velvety black, the latter elegantly
marbled with waving lines of ferruginous, and
broadly edged exteriorly with white ; wings
plain dusky, all the feathers, as well as those of
the coverts, tipped with white ; shoulder of the
wing, deep dusky brown, exterior quill, edged
with white ; tail coverts long, reaching within
three-quarters of an inch of the tip, and of a pale

SNIPE SHOOTING. 41

rust color, spotted with black; tail rounded,
deep black, ending in a bar of bright ferrugi-
nous, crossed with narrow, waving lines of
black, and tipped with whitish; belly, pure
white ; sides, barred with dusky ; legs and feet,
a very pale ashy green; sometimes the whole
thighs and sides of the vent are tarred with
dusky and white. The female is more obscure
in her colors ; the white on the belly being less
pure, and the black on the back not so deep."

The winter of 183- had been very severe in
the middle and eastern states.

In Pennsylvania it was marked by high winds,
heavy falls of snow, and unusually low depres-
sions of the mercury.

Deer, floundering in the deep drifts, were
killed in great numbers by the hunters of the
upper districts, and in the counties adjoining
Philadelphia the smaller varieties of game nearly
all perished. Grouse and hares were starved
out in the hills, or fell an easy prey to the foxes;
partridges came and fed from the threshing-
floors ; larks were found dead in the hay -ricks ;
crows alit upon the offals in the barnyard ; and
it became necessary to keep the poultry housed,
and their crops well filled, to save them from
the hawks, or from freezing to death on their
roosts.

42 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

About the middle of February the severity of
the season abated. The mercury rose to a genial
mark; the sky became beautifully clear and
cloudless ; the ground thawed ; the snow rapidly
disappeared ; and in a few days the notes of the
song-sparrow and the blue-bird, gave cheering
intimations of the near approach of spring.

Some old farmers in our vicinity professed
little faith in the assurances of these welcome
visitors. Sagely shaking their heads, they hus-
banded their hay-stacks, as they still looked
askant at the hills and the blue air ; but as the
weather, uninfluenced by their forebodings, still
continued mild, we made much of every war-
bled note, and turned a deaf ear to the croakers,
willing to believe that the Solomons of meadow
and upland were mistaken for once.

About this period we received, through the
village post office, a note from an acquaintance
in town, with an enclosed dispatch from old
Pierson of the Pier, announcing, in his usual
emphatic way, that the meadows above and be-
low Pennsgrove, New Jersey, were fairly alive
with snipe.

We had already observed woodcock flying in
the evening twilight, and began to flush them,
by day, in a woods of some extent, where they

SNIPE SHOOTING. 43

had regularly bred for many years. Although
then anxious to obtain a closer insight into the
habits of these solitary and retiring birds, which,
despite the observations of ornithologists, are
still involved in a certain degree of mystery, we,
of course, abandoned our investigations on the
receipt of this intelligence, and summoning
Czar, who was in fine health and spirits, doubt-
less anticipating work, set off at once for the
city, and dropped into Krider's on the morning
of the succeeding day.

Our arrangements were soon made, and well
aware that, should the wind haul to the north-
west, with a lowering sky, this flight of birds
would leave the low grounds on the river, and
seek shelter inland, we took the cars to Wil-
mington, intending to cross the Delaware to
Pennsgrove, if possible, on the same afternoon.

On the road down we will, with the reader's
permission, give a brief account of the game
which we were in quest of, and of the descrip-
tion of dog, whether rough or smooth, most to
be preferred in following in this exciting sport.

It may not be altogether superfluous to remind
the general reader, that there is but one species
of snipe, known to our sportsmen, which will lie
to, and can be hunted with dogs. This is the

44 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

English snipe, once so called, but now, by gene-
ral consent, named after the great American
ornithologist who first pointed out the difference
between it and the European variety. This
difference, though apparently trifling, was suffi-
cient, in the judgment of Temminck, Bonaparte,
and other distinguished writers, to entitle it to
the rank of a distinct species, universally known
among naturalists of the present day as Wilson's
snipe.

The other American varieties possess nothing
to attract the pursuit of the sportsman, and are
therefore abandoned , sans ceremo?iie, to the mar-
ket shooter. The history of each will be found
well marked and interesting in its place ; but.
ne sutor ultra crepidam, as a sophymore would
say ; wre have no room for it here.

Wilson's snipe has been so often described in
books, from the tip of the bill to the ends of the
tail feathers, and is so well known, that we
might almost forego the minute details of its
dimensions and markings.

From the uncertainty attending its move-
ments on the feeding grounds, the swiftness and
eccentricity of its flight, the exposure and hard
hunting required in its pursuit, the rare sport it
often affords when found, its game-look as it

SNIPE SHOOTING. 45

springs from the marshes, and when brought to
bag, as well as its delicacy 011 the table, it has
long been an object of especial interest to the
keenest and most imaginative of our sportsmen.
We have no doubt that one thing which makes
snipe shooting pre-eminently attractive to some
sportsmen, is the delightful state of uncertainty
which now, more than ever, attends the pursuit
of this species of game.

Partridge shooting, so long upheld as the beau
ideal of sport, savors rather too much of the pre-
serves to be exactly to the taste of a thorough
hunter. In a country well stocked with game of
this kind, whenever there are stubbles, at the
proper time of day there you will find birds ; and
there is something in the half domesticated nature
of this familiar little member of the gallinaceous
order, in the loud, clear " all right" of the male,
the tender and anxious calls of the scattered co-
vey, and the extreme terror which they display
in hiding away from the dogs, which, after a few
brace are killed, half disarms many a reflective
sportsman. With the snipe, on the contrary, we
have no sympathies of this sort ; he is not one of
us, but, comparatively speaking, a sort of winged
cosmopolite ; is often wary and shy, and as soon
as he springs, begins to exercise his ingenuity to

46 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

escape your aim — now darting, like a flash, in
zigzag lines, and now soaring sky-high, as if to
top the range of your piece.

Woodcock shooting in " the cripple" always
reminds us of a party of madmen shouting and
banging away at vampire bats, in the eternal twi-
light of some equatorial forests. Rail shooting, if
practiced more than once or twice in a season,
becomes too tiresome and monotonous to possess
much interest, except for the sum total boated.
Duck shooting is a noble diversion; but what
thrill of expectation is equal to that which the
sportsman feels, when, after a fruitless hunt over
acres and acres of heavy ground, he beholds in
the distance the trusty and indefatigable compa-
nion of his toil, standing steadily to his point at
last — or what a more game sight than the grey,
phantom-like look of the wandering snipe, as
uttering its peculiar cry, it flits over a wild marsh,
on a March or November day?

Being all open shooting, the shooter, of course,
has an opportunity of observing all the move-
ments of his dogs, and also of the bird after it has
sprung ; and on this account alone many shoot-
ers declare that they had rather have two days of
good sport at snipe, than a whole season at part-
ridges or rail.

SNIPE SHOOTING. 47

But why are snipe uncertain in their move-
ments on the feeding ground ?

It is supposed to be owing, in some measure,
to the nature of their food, and to the enormous
quantity which they require, in common with
other birds of their genus, and also to their sus-
ceptibility to the influences of the weather — at
no season of the year more subject to sudden fluc-
tuations of temperature than early in the spring.
Always feeding from choice in open marshes,
they may be found in sufficient numbers to afford
excellent sport to-day, when the weather is mo-
derately warm, and light clouds, borne on a brisk
breeze from the south-west, cast their shadows on
bare bog or tussock, as they drift over head. But
should the wind shift, and come on to blow
strong from the north-east, as is often the case
during the night, the next morning you may tra-
verse the marshes in vain, in the face of a lower-
ing sky ; the birds are off for cover ; and unless
you have a particular fancy to be detained three
or four days in a snow storm, at a country inn,
you had better be off, too, for you will have no
more shooting on that excursion.

This is very apt to occur when the birds are
in advance of the season, and has happened with
us again and again in March, and even in April.

48 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

How often have shooters, knowing that birds
were on the meadows below, and not wishing to
start off on Friday or Saturday, postponed their
departure until the following Monday, when a
wet gale from the north-east has set in, and no
further accounts of snipe have been received
until the wind hauled to a more auspicious point.

Independent of this, some writers assert that
the snipe is, naturally, of a restless and capricious
disposition — that conscious of his powers of
flight, he often whimsically takes to wing when
none of the foregoing causes are known to exist,
apparently delighting in his extent of range ; and
at last suddenly drops down from the field of air
in some new feeding ground, miles and miles
from the spot which he so unaccountably aban-
doned.

We have no serious objection to investing our
favorite with this etherial character, making him,
so to speak, a sort of "dainty ^Eriel" to his own
wild will ; but we suspect, nevertheless, that he
is not exactly like the renowned Scotch geese,
who liked their play better than their food.

As his powers of digestion are equally well
known with those of his flight, we are inclined
to think that he has still a wary eye to the main
chance, and that his eccentric coquettings writh

SNIPE SHOOTING. 49

his feeding grounds are, in some degree, at least,
dependent upon an abundance or scarcity of
food.

Again and again has the sportsman, by chance
or the range and instinct of his dog, discovered
some choice piece of ground, of no great extent,
which the birds, though allowed not a moment's
rest, showed the greatest indisposition to leave.

We remember to have found this to be the
case many years ago, in a small meadow on Duck
Creek, immediately back of what is called Smyr-
na's Landing. No steamboat had ever entered
the creek at this period, and the place was com-
paratively unknown to shooters.

On the meadow referred to snipe were feeding
in such numbers, that had not the dog been a
steady old setter, his presence would have been
a decided disadvantage. As it was he did not
move five yards in advance of us, and we kept on
flushing and firing, until, though then an indif-
ferent snipe shot, we had bagged seventy-two
birds. When the sun sank upon our sport, the
ground was covered with wads as with a slight
sprinkling of snow.

The next morning, at the instance of the ac-
quaintance with whom we were sojourning, we
shifted the scene by shooting in the stubbles ;

50 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

and upon visiting the snipe ground on the suc-
ceeding day, hardly a solitary individual was to
be found.

The signs of the aifray were there, but the
meadow was deserted except by a few crippled
birds. After securing these, all we could do was
to sit on a convenient stump and smile at the mo-
tions of Dash, who, remembering the first day's
shooting, could scarcely convince himself that
the game had flown, despite the evidence of his
nose.

This flight of snipe were, of course, migrating
southward, and having pitched into an isolated
spot where food was abundant, were extremely
loath to leave it, until their wants were satisfied
and their powers recruited for new efforts on the
wing.

It is proper to state that the place where the
birds were found, was composed of a few acres of
bare, black loam and tussocks, flanked on either
side by a thick woods.

Snipe are not, moreover, so extremely sensi-
tive to frost as the books would lead the unprac-
tised shooter to suppose. Any person who has
hunted these birds for successive seasons, will
tell you that he has killed snipe in considerable
numbers both in the spring and fall, when the

SNIPE SHOOTING. 51

ice was almost thick enough to bear his tread.
We, ourselves, have done this more than once in
particular situations, at Pennsgrove and Dennis-
ville, New Jersey. A severe frost, sufficient, so
to speak, to seal the marshes hermetically, of
course, necessitates them to extend their flight
beyond the sphere of its influence, by cutting off
their supplies ; strong easterly blows, whether
wet or dry, drive them sooner to cover;* rain
makes them restless and indisposed to lie to the
dogs, and eventually forces them into the withered
rushes and cornfields ; but if caught by a snow
storm on the marshes — as every old sportsman
knows is sometimes the case, in spite of what a
recent writer calls their meteorological faculties —
they seem to lose their natural instinct, and will
huddle helplessly under the lee of a hill or bank,
in which situations seven and eight have been
killed by a farmer's boy at a single shot.

As regards the manner of hunting " gray
snipe," and their sprite-like efforts to escape when
flushed, we are no book-makers, and the less we
dilate on these subjects the better for all parties
concerned.

* At Mannahawkin, on the New Jersey coast, Mr. Krider has
found them on such occasions harboring in the "cripples."

52 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

If you are naturally a sportsman, you will soon
learn how to approach and to kill them, albeit,
on the first few trials, the eccentricities which
they practice on the wing, and the elfish ease
with which they seem to evade the contents of
both barrels, will leave an impression on your
mind, which, however annoying then, becomes a
very pleasant and exciting reminiscence after
you have learned how to knock them down, right
and left, secundem artem. In this, gentle reader,
consists the gist of the secret of the true sports-
man's love for snipe shooting. As to exposure
and hard work, no man who has not a quick spirit,
sound health, and wrell-strung muscles, should
attempt to hunt snipe.

We have known, too, a life of indolence and a
consequent disposition to become stout, to spoil
more than one keen snipe shooter. But let a man
not too much encumbered with infirmities of the
flesh — by which we simply mean fat — carry with
him to the marshes a fellow feeling for snipe, in
the inverse ratio to their wary and weird-like
propensities, and the sport then compares with
some other varieties presently to come under
notice — as grouse shooting on the Scotch muirs,
or deer stalking on the highlands, does with
shooting under the escort of a game-keeper in the
English preserves.

SNIPE SHOOTING. 53

The remark is equally true of the three ex-
citing diversions, that when one has enjoyed them
to perfection, they are apt to give him a distaste
for his other previously most cherished pursuits.
In fact, we have found the prediction strongly
manifested even by uneducated men of ordinary
capacities, who have been reared in the vicinity
of snipe grounds.

" Hunting quail," said an old resident of the
Neck, who had killed great numbers of snipe,
partridges and woodcock in his day, "is like
killing the stock on a man's farm ; but a snipe
was made to be sprung and shot as certainly as
a trigger was forged to be pulled."*

* This old man. has assured us, that he had often seen snipe rise
from his meadows in dense flocks, like reed birds, in September,
and that previous to the invention of percussion locks, he and his
brother had killed a market basket full in a -few hours.

He had shot snipe and woodcock in parts of the lower districts,
now thickly populated, and lived to see the day when ho was
forced to complain, that he could hardly find a dozen reed birds in
his own fields. Even in his latter days he was a remarkable shot,
discharging his piece almost at the instant on which the butt
touched his shoulder, and most generally with decided effect.

Though not much given to jocular remarks, he was wont to say,
that his dog had such an opinion of his master's shooting, that he
barely waited for the report before he sprang forward to retrieve
the bird. Old Brazier was perfectly familiar with every rood of
meadow or " mash" for miles and miles around, and will long be
remembered in the Neck, for his skill as a shot and the energetic
peculiarities of his disposition.

4

54 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

Of all descriptions of dogs used in field shoot-
ing, we unreservedly advance the opinion, that a
swift thorough-going pointer or setter is, beyond
dispute, the best for snipe.

They know practically little of what they are
writing about, who assert, in these latter days,
that a slow dog is to be preferred in this species
of sport. We grant that the assertion may hold
good if intended to be applied to an old man, or
a fair-weather sportsman ; and in that case we
are not surprised, when carrying out the remark,
some writers tell you, sotto voce, that perhaps
you had better leave the dogs at home. We re-
gard their advice, in this particular, pretty much
as Dash or Czar would do, themselves, provided
that they could comprehend the author were the
last, with equal point and propriety, to advise
them to beware of hunting too fast, lest they
should over-heat their systems or founder their
feet — that is to say, with a stare and a sniff. So
far from admitting them to be sportsmen, we
doubt if ever in their lives they "felt so much
cold as over shoes in snow," and are inclined to
conjecture that they must have been the veritable
Cockneys, whose dogs, after witnessing a few of
their exploits, left them, in unmitigated disgust,
and went quietly home to resume their slumbers.

SNIPE SHOOTING. 55

Apropos, we remember to have not long since
seen, in our walk, an odd looking disciple of
Nimrod, in a velvet cap, shooting-jacket, and
horseman's boots, solemnly beating out a build-
ing lot on Broad street, where a little water had
accumulated after a rain — his face set and his
piece at full cock — tramping backwards and
forwards, now with the wind at his back, and
now quartering — and evincing in these ma-
noeuvres a precision and tenacity of purpose,
which at first induced us to suspect that the
man was mad ; until opportunely remembering
the advice of these same closet shooters, and
having a sincere respect for genius in the germ,
we instantly withdrew our too curious gaze, and
whistling to Dash, who was also regarding the
embryo Nimrod with unaffected astonishment,
walked hastily on.

We will hazard the opinion that this disciple,
like his master, seldom found dogs of much ac-
count in snipe shooting.

But to resume — for the cars have passed the
Lazaretto. It is not our wish to sit in judgment
between the pointer and the setter, respecting the
supposed superiority of either as snipe dogs. We
have shot over so many excellent animals of both
species, that, falling back on our sporting expe-

56 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

rience, it really seems invidious to institute a
comparison. If required, however, to pronounce
an opinion, we confess a slight preference for the
pointer.

Our partiality is grounded solely on his supe-
rior steadiness and sagacity in the field, and the
faculty which he sometimes displays of winding
and leading directly on to snipe, from an asto-
nishing distance.

He is more staunch, and can be more fully de-
pended upon at a much earlier age than the set-
ter. When, however, a dog of the latter stock
has arrived at the age of five or six years, and
been regularly hunted every season, especially
by one man, and that man a sportsman, he some-
times becomes, so to speak, a very Napoleon
among snipe dogs.

All the fine qualities of the two stocks are con-
centrated and perfected in him ; but such dogs
are extremely rare. They are to be considered
as the product of a combination of unusually fine
instincts in the brute, brought out, tempered and
perfected by the higher intelligence of the man.

If your dog is experienced and staunch to his
point, as, of course, he ought to be, the faster he
hunts the better your prospect of finding birds.
When he gets in among them, he will then be-
come sufficiently steady.

SNIPE SHOOTING. 57

As to his over-running birds, that is mere ba-
gatelle. Snipe have not as yet been arraigned
at the " Cedars" for wilfully withholding their
scent.

A good dog is still permitted to wind them at
a safe distance. Their effluvia is still allowed to
be strong, even by those wonder-hunting gentle-
men, who, absorbed by one startling idea, like
the traveller who saw the calf's tail protruding
through a knot-hole in the tan-yard fence, invoke
the aid of clap-trap at once, disdaining to pay the
least regard to any ordinary solution of the mys-
tery.

If, in the course of a day's sport, a few birds
are prematurely and unavoidably flushed, the
snipe shooter thinks no more of the matter, than
a general, after a successful engagement, does of
the casualties of the field.

A disposition to range is characteristic of a
high-bred animal ; and it is this quality, which,
when united to staunchness and a knowledge of
ground imbibed from successive seasons of field
practice, mainly constitutes a snipe dog.

The antiquated foolery about slow dogs, is
only kept up by a set of scribblers, who, while
cudgelling their brains to glorify American field
sports, ever seem pathetically to lament their ex-

53 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

elusion from the English preserves. These gen-
tlemen, having been brought up to a tether, never
forget their veneration for game laws and the
majesty of a ring fence. Whether they are paid
by London gun makers to puff their work on this
side of the Atlantic, we know not; but one thing
is certain, that if you read what they write, and
believe, you will soon profess little faith in aught
connected with sporting on this side of the water.

As to their prosy and oft-repeated directions
how to hunt snipe, in our humble opinion they
are not worth a pinch of powder, except to fill a
page or two of twaddle. It would really be some-
thing new if any well-tutored dog could be pro-
duced, who did not know more about the matter
than gentlemen who affect to laud Ponto to the
skies in one breath, and tell you that he is not
worth the trouble of taking out to the field in the
next.

But, aliens ! The cars have stopped, and as
soon as possible we must be afloat. After some
delay, a boat and two stout oarsmen were pro-
cured ; the dogs, inured to all sorts of locomotion,
tumbled in and stowed themselves away in the
stern-sheets, as peacefully as lambs; and with
the tide swelling fast to flood, we pushed off for
the opposite shore.

SNIPE SHOOTING. 59

Considerable time was consumed in making a
passage, as the river was filled with floating ice,
and is here, at least, twice its width at Philadel-
phia ; but thanks to the skill and sinewy arms
of the boatmen this was at last effected, without
shipping more water than was agreeable, except
to the dogs, who, however, bore the infliction with
exemplary patience.

Old Pierson, who had been watching the boat
with a glass from the balcony, met us on the pier,
in spite of his rheumatic limp, and in a few mo-
ments we were busily engaged in shifting in our
old comfortable room, facing the river.

A lunch was ready for us when we descended
in sporting trim ; but, although an hour and a
half amongst the ice had sharpened our appe-
tites, we paid but brief attention to the repast,
and under the auspices of our good-natured host
speedily set off, directing our course down to a
well-known meadow back of the first cove below
the pier.

The day was all we could ask ; the sun about
midway in his course ; the sky blue and clear,
with streaks of haze — which foretold a change —
slowly spreading in the north-east ; but feeling
tolerably sure of a half day's sport on the twenty-
first day of February, we blessed our auspicious
stars and strode rapidly on.

60 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

The place for which we were pushing was a
low, marshy meadow, partly covered with rushes,
and lying in a sort of winding nook between the
Salem road and the river bank, outside of which
was a tide-water flat, where birds are often found
feeding in April on a calm day. The meadow
was traversed by a run of some size, and some
apprehensions had been expressed by T. of its
proving too wet, although Pierson had assured
us that the snow had been off the ground so long
that it was now in excellent order for snipe. It
was easy to see by the state of the ground over
which we passed, in making a short cut to avoid
a turn in the bank, that the wind and the sun
had been unusually active in the process of eva-
poration, for the season of the year, though we
looked in vain for the fishermen from whom our
host had derived his information ; the sheds be-
hind the bank, where they are almost always to
be found mending their gill-nets in the first of
the season, being now apparently deserted.

The tide was up over the flat, and as we halted
a moment on the bank and looked inland, it was
plain that if birds were to be found at all, it was
on the meadow before us. After reconnoitering
an instant, we crossed the ditch and separated.

A gentle breeze was blowing from the south-

SNIPE SHOOTING. 61

west directly athwart our course, and Dash, our
friend's setter, taking- it in his nostrils, com-
menced to quarter his ground at a fast gallop,
edging more and more in the wind, while Czar,
after casting a jealous glance at the other's mo-
tions, drew up in his track and threw his nose
high, snuffing the air; then advancing a few
yards, he looked around to catch our eye, and led
straight at a half crouch, as was his habit when
winding on a strong scent.

We had watched his motions from the moment
we rose to the bank, and working leisurely up,
now felt sure that birds were within a few hun-
dred feet of us, as we could actually see them
feeding and flitting up on the meadow.

In this way, taking no notice whatever of a
shot from T. at an outlying bird, he continued on
towards the bend of the meadow, and crossing
the run at the old spot, halted and stood firm to
his point on the very edge of the rushes, which
covered about two acres of ground.

We waved our hand to T., who was up in a
moment, and for a single portentous instant, we
both paused, gazing with admiring eyes at the
striking picture before us.

The attitude of the dogs, each as he stood like

O '

stone, was intensely apprehensive and life-like.

G2 KRIDER'S SrORTING ANECDOTES.

The pointer — as was his wont when close on
his game — stood with one foot raised and his
body half bent, the loose skin on his forehead
corrugated into what we are wont to call an in-
fallible wrinkle, beneath which his large, full
eyes were immovably fixed on the rushes before
him, with a stare half knostic, half grim, like that
of a priest on his tripod about to announce to
some trembling expectant the shadows of a pre-
destined doom.

The setter was a few paces behind, equally
firm in his posture, though his gaze was more
inquisitive and less concentrated, and he held his
head higher, as if looking over the pointer's stern.
They did not appear to breathe ; not a muscle of
their bodies moved ; the withered herbage rustled
softly in the wind, which played with the long
winter feathers of the rough dog's coat, but no
stone bastion could have been steadier, and the
very lines of his jowls were as fixed and deter-
minate, as the circumvallations round the ram-
part of some bristling fortress.

Simultaneously we made two strides into the
low cover; not a feather showed itself; a step
farther, and, uttering their peculiar alarm notes,
six or seven snipe sprung within as many feet of
us, and darted in crooked lines up the meadow;

SNIPE SHOOTING. 63

the reports instantly followed ; the dogs dropped,
and in this way, alternately flushing and firing,
we beat out the rushes, and drove the remaining
birds into the range of meadow below.

o

Language could scarcely describe the admira-
ble steadiness with which the dogs moved over
this first portion of the ground. No two veteran
scouts, suspicious of an ambuscade, could have
shown greater wariness in the heart of an ene-
my's country.

They trailed through the rustling rushes as
gingerly as if they were treading among circum-
ambient steel-traps.

No new casualty in flushing or falling, no
proximity to living or dead birds, could draw
them an inch farther than prudence warranted. In
one instance, while Czar was on a point, a bird was
killed which fell plump on the old fellow's head,
without discomposing his equanimity in the least.
T. declared that he never winked. A few minutes
afterwards, from some peculiar movement of the
game, he became wedged, as it were, between
two snipe, and we never shall forget the sudden-
ness with which he dropped, the wary, wide-
awake look of his red muzzle, as he flattened his
jowls down on the moist earth, nor the cool, saga-
cious air with which he rose on his legs, when

64 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

he heard the click of the capped gun-locks, after
the birds had been flushed and killed.

We now proceeded to the lower meadows, over
which the birds had scattered, and the excellence
of the dogs in finding the game, now spread over
a wide extent of country, was very apparent.

The superior swiftness of the setter gave him
at first some advantage ; but after reaching the
improved pasture grounds still further down,
where the earth was drier, the sagacity which
Czar showed in avoiding wide, circling and ex-
cursive ranges, and the faculty which he seemed
to possess of piloting the shooter directly to the
moist spots where the birds lay, gave him in the
end full as many points.

Upon comparing notes at sundown we found
that, as usual, neither of us could boast of having
greatly exceeded the other in the number of shots
bagged, which amounted in all to thirty-six
brace.*

The birds were small and thin, but they laid

* Early in the spring the birds frequent wet stubble-fields in
sheltered situations, a few miles inland from the great water
courses, and we have often killed numbers of them in such locali-
ties, when very few were to be found upon the meadows. No
doubt the worms work nearer to the surface in low, cultivated
grounds, than upon the broad, exposed surface of meadow land.

SNIPE SHOOTING. 65

close to the dogs, and flew well, and, every thing
considered, we seldom enjoyed greater diversion
on many subsequent visits to these and other
localities. That night the wind shifted to the
eastward, and we reached Philadelphia at one
o'clock the next day, in the midst of a furious
snow storm. This was the first and last snipe
shooting we had in the month of February.*

Within the last few years these grounds, as
well as others above and below, on either side of
the Delaware, have been greatly improved. Ex-
tensive marshes have been drained ; sterile mea-
dows thrown open to the tides and afterwards
banked in, so that year after year there is even
less certainty than before of finding snipe. Still,
diversion is to be had by those who know the
grounds and study the weather, along Oldman's,
Salem and Allovvay's creeks, on the New Jersey
side, the marshes of Newport, Staunton, New

* We have long noticed that when the nights are cool, with high
•winds from the north-west, towards the latter end of March, very
few birds are to be found on the marshes. The prevalence of
southerly winds and a hazy sky, with drizzling rain, is much more
favorable to their migration northward. The same remark holds
good in reference to the appearance of shad in the Delaware. In-
deed, snipe are called shad-birds by many of the fishermen, and the
abundance or scarcity of the one is considered highly indicative of
that of the other.

66 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

Castle, Delaware City, Port Penn, and upon the
grounds on Appoquinaminky and Blackbird
creeks, on the Delaware side.

It is, however, now more necessary, if possible,
than before, that a snipe dog, to be up to his
work, should be perfectly steady, and possess at
the same time considerable power of range.

While the passion for field sports is largely on
the increase with us, agriculturists are improving
their lands on the great water courses, and mar-
ket shooters striving to be in advance of the
sportsman on all the choice grounds ; so that the
chances are, that, unless you go farther and spend
more time on your excursions, you will hardly
get your share of snipe shooting.

How different was the case in the days of our
fathers, and even within the memory of our own !
Who then would have thought of going thirty or
forty miles from home to kill snipe ?

They were then particularly abundant in "the
Neck," on the marshes of the Schuylkill, and
along all the lesser tributaries of the Delaware.

The shooter was then sure of finding sport on
Sheer's or Girard's meadows, in the vicinity of
the " Broad Marsh," and almost at any point be-
tween the Navy Yard and the Lazaretto, includ-
ing the drifts and low islands along the Pennsyl-

SNIPE SHOOTING. 67

vania shore. On the New Jersey side, Kaighn's
Point meadows, and those upon the Newt-own
Creek, were accounted good snipe grounds. Red-
field's flat, at the mouth of Timber Creek, and
low lands of Josiah Ward, lying several miles
higher up the stream, were specially famous.

On Eagle Point meadows snipe have been seen
in immense flights, and the marshes of Wood-
bury and Mantua creeks were also celebrated.
Wilson's grounds, situated on the latter stream,
and consisting of low tussocky pasturage, trod-
den up by cattle and kept sufficiently moist by
the spring rains, were much visited by sports-
men.

Clemmell and Raccoon creeks, and Raccoon
island, have also been in great esteem in their
day. On the range of meadows from Bridge-
port, New Jersey, down to Oldman's Creek, and
on all the grounds between Pennsgrove and Sa-
lem Creek, birds are still to be found from the
twentieth of March until the last of April. We
once killed twenty brace of very fine snipe at
Pennsgrove as late as the fourth of May, and in
March last bagged eighty-eight birds in two
days' shooting in the same vicinity. We repeat,
however, that these, as well as the most noted
grounds on the opposite shore, have been so

63 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

drained of late years, that unless you have some
acquaintance with the best localities, and are
able to stand rough weather,* hard work, and
often chagrin, to boot, you had better extend
your excursions.

At Bridgeton, New Jersey, there are an
abundance of snipe, both in the spring and fall;
you will also have sport at Bombay Hook ; but
in the neighborhood of Dennisville, New Jer-
sey, are the best and most extensive snipe
grounds that we have any knowledge of.

We would advise the young shooter, if he has
a week to spare, to go there by all means. If

* We were shooting, in March, on the river meadows between
Pennsgrove and Craven's Ferry, during a gale from the south-east,
when an extraordinary high tide suddenly swept away about fifty
feet of the bank, through which the water came roaring in so fast
that the dogs were swimming round us, and we were actually up to
our waists before we could reach the fast land. The meadows were
submerged for miles, and numbers of sheep and hogs drowned, the
carcasses of which lay scattered about, while we were killing snipe
at low water over portions of the same ground on the next day.

On another occasion, in Robinson's meadows, on Salem Creek,
having found birds plentiful but very wild, we at last succeeded in
driving them across a ditch into a cat-tail swamp, where we had
them at advantage, inasmuch as the cover being high, they were
inclined to lie close. In the midst of our sport the tide stole a
march upon us, and we were forced to give over shooting and wade
the ditch, which we had previously crossed without much dif-
ficulty.

SNIPE SHOOTING. 69

the journey is somewhat long and tiresome, he
is at least certain, at its end, to find the grounds
free from market shooters, who, wherever they
go, tend to prejudice the country people against
all strangers from the city. These fellows, in
general, regard the sportsman with an evil eye,
and unless closely watched are apt to play him
some trick.

There is a tolerable good house kept by

Wills, at the upper end of the village, and the
host is fond of going out with his guests.

The proper times to start are about the mid-
dle of March, or the last of October in the
fall.

At Frenchtown, Maryland, there are good
snipe grounds, but their extent is comparatively
small, and the sport is over in a few hours. Still,
if you have the advantage of pilotage, and are
on the spot early enough in the season — as snipe
seldom remain here long in spring, preferring
to follow the course of rivers where the tides
ebb and flow — you may sometimes have a suffi-
ciency of sport.*

* At this place Mr. Krider has seen five snipe feeding on one
spot, within ten feet of the road-side. Had ho been disposed, and
not too agreeably occupied with watching the ease and dispatch
with which they bored the ground with their long bills, the dex-

70 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

We have nothing to say here in reference to
the kind of gun to be used in snipe shooting ;
this is left to the choice of the shooter.

As to the apparel most suitable for traversing
the drifts and marshes, it would be well to re-
member that there is a water-proof boot made
by a few Philadelphia artizans, which for light-
ness and durability exceeds any work of the
kind which we have ever used. They should
be made Jarge enough to admit two pairs of
stockings — one pair made of lamb's wool to be
worn next to the skin. You will find the ad-
vantage of this, when riding home nine or ten
miles, after your day's hunt.

Snipe are found in almost every quarter of the
globe. The editor has seen them exposed for
sale alive in the market at Canton, China, and
killed them in the marshes of the bay of Santa
Catherina, on the southern coast of Brazil.

terity with which they drew out and swallowed the worms, and the
quantity which they caught and devoured in the space of a few
minutes, he might readily have killed them all at one discharge.
They kept so close together, were so busily intent on their opera-
tions, that, to an imaginative mind, they might have recalled the
fictitious image of so many gnomes in a mine.

After he had observed them for some minutes, they silently flew
and alit a few yards farther off, where the inequalities of the sur-
face of the ground effectually hid them from view.

SNIPE SHOOTING. 71

The rice fields of Egypt swarm with them in
winter ; they are found in Java and Sumatra,
and almost all the islands of the Indian sea.

In Madagascar they are abundant; also in
Ceylon and Japan ; they have been killed in
great numbers at the Falkland Islands, and
other stormy and desolate solitudes of the south-
ern Atlantic.

They are common in the Arctic regions of
Siberia, and in every part of the old continent.

In North America, they are said to be abund-
ant in the golden regions of the Pacific, and are
found every where in the United States.

They afford sport to the citizens of New Or-
leans and Mobile, and are known all along the
course of " the great father of waters."

With few exceptions, they breed far to the
north, and in Canada, we believe, are only shot
in the fall, before they begin to move off to their
winter home in the south.

Snipe are often found in very wet situations.
We have sometimes flushed them late in the
spring from low meadows in the interior of the
state, which were so covered with water that the
ends of the blades of grass just appeared on the
surface.

Notwithstanding their wandering and way-

72 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

ward nature, they soon become accustomed to
captivity. We once kept one of these birds
several weeks in company with a yellow shanked
snipe. (Scolopax Flavipedes.)

WOODCOCK SHOOTING.

THE WOODCOCK— SCOLOPAX MDTOK.

Description. — "The male woodcock is ten
inches and a half long, and sixteen inches in ex-
tent ; bill a brownish flesh color, black towards
the tip, the upper mandible ending in a slight
knob, that projects about one-tenth of an inch
beyond the lower, each grooved, and, in length,
somewhat more than two inches and a half;
forehead, line over the eyes, and whole lower
parts reddish tawny ; sides of the neck, inclining-
to ash ; between the eye and bill, a slight streak
of dark brown ; crown, from the fore part of the
eye backwards, black, crossed by three narrow
bands of brownish white ; cheeks, marked with
a bar of black, variegated with light brown ;
edges of the back, and of the scapulars, pale
bluish white ; back and scapulars, deep black,
each feather tipped or marbled with light brown
and bright ferruginous, with numerous fine zig-
zag lines of black crossing the lighter part ;
quills, plain dusky brown ; tail, black, each

74 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

feather marked along the outer edge with small
spots of pale brown, and ending in narrow tips,
of a pale drab color above, and silvery white be-
low ; lining of the wing, bright rust ; legs and
feet, a pale reddish flesh color; eye, very full
and black, seated high and very far back in the
head ; weight, five ounces and a half, sometimes
six.

"The female is twelve inches long, and eigh-
teen in extent ; weighs eight ounces ; and differs
also in having the bill very near three inches in
length ; the black on the head is not quite so
intense; and the sides under the wings are
slightly barred with dusky."

The Breeding Grounds. — You are in the
country in the month of March, and chance to
be standing on an eminence in front of a low
meadow, flanked by a wood.

Although the weather has been mild for the
season, yet something in the prospect before
you, grounded upon the experience of the past,
inclines you to think the winter is not yet over.

The snows no longer whiten the valley ; the
stream has burst from its icy bounds ; but the
tyrant king of the north is not yet dethroned,
and the face of nature still wears an aspect of
austere and desolate gloom. No songster's note

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 75

is heard, save the single melancholy call of the
blue-bird,* borne from afar on the rising blast,
which, as it rattles the naked boughs overhead,
or whirls the dead leaves at your feet, imparts
even a touch of menace to the sere look of the
scene.

Perhaps while reflecting on the changes of
season, you are insensibly led to dwell on a ver-
dure which nought can restore ; or it may be
you are in that dreamy, short-lived mood which
is so apt to enfold a man's inmost spirit as he
watches day -light darken in the sky ; while the
old farmer, whose progenitors, for four genera-
tions, have lived and died on the place, halts at
your side, internally wondering what it is that
you see in the west, where the sun has just sunk
in your sight, behind some distant hill.

Suddenly you hear a discordant cry, and ob-
serve a bird which has just risen from the low

* This call or plaint, which is the bird's common note when
migrating in autumn, is also heard early in the spring, when a
recurrence of wintry weather drives it back to the south, from
whence too early it came.

The note is generally uttered high in the air, and has a very dif-
ferent effect upon the ear from the soft and delicate warble with
which every lover of spring is familiar, and which, when heard
amid the fragrance of May, would seem the very outpourings of a
gratulatory and innocent joy.

76 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

grounds before you, rapidly scaling the air by a
series of short, spiral evolutions, until it has
attained a height equal, perhaps, to that of a tall
poplar in the vicinity ; then sailing to and fro
in a slow, devious circuit, it seems to survey the
meadow beneath, while a low, murmuring sound,
which has something questful in its cadence,
drops, as it were, on your ear from the twilight
sky ; listening to this, you again hear a sharp,
impatient "pa-a-ck" and see the bird shoot di-
rectly down close to the spot from whence it
arose, again uttering its last, harsh, guttural cry
as it touches the ground.

This singular flight is repeated twice or thrice,
at short intervals, the harsh note on the ground
becoming each time more significant and dis-
tinct. It is the love-call of the male ; the spiral
ascent and subsequent motions in the air are
the bird's mode of wooing ; and you may be sure
that the female is coquettishly lurking in the
grass close by, or, perhaps, running, with droop-
ing wings, to meet her destined mate as he de-
scends.

"Do you know what bird that is?" your
attendant asks, pointing toward the meadow with
his unshorn chin.

" Certainly," you reply ; " it is a woodcock."

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 77

" Nay," says old Barleycorn, smiling at your
fancied ignorance, " it is a bushschnip. I haven't
sawn a woodcock on these lands since I were a
boy."

You are only at odds about names, however,
the farmer fancying that you spoke of the great
pileated woodpecker, once common in the forests
of Montgomery, and, with its kingly congener,
the ivory-billed, long ago so admirably described
by Wilson ; while you, perhaps, are almost as
far led astray by the quaint but appropriate
title, which he bestows upon the bird in ques-
tion, and by which it was always distinguished
in the primitive days of his fathers.

As soon as you are set right again, he will
tell you that he has seen as many as five or six
woodcocks engaged in these serial courtships, in
the morning and evening twilight, at this season
of the year, making a curious medley of sounds
which, perhaps, he will describe as a mingled
quacking and whooping, loud enough to be dis-
tinctly audible on his porch, at least a hundred
yards distant from the meadow. On one occa-
sion, while he was standing at the fence, one
bird descended so close to another already on
the ground, that he saw them engage in a du-
etto, which lasted for several moments. They

78 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

tilted and tugged with their long bills, and flap-
ped each other with their wings, their tail-
feathers stiffly erected and their plumage in-
verted, until the spectator, a conscientious mem-
ber of a society religiously opposed to all
species of combats, save those of flesh and spirit,
stepped from his place of concealment and put
both belligerents to flight.

A few evenings after this conversation, wea-
rying of your book or your pen, you look out from
your window upon the tranquil face of night.
It is a calm, clear evening ; you can just hear
the roar of the distant dam, and looking toward
the quiet meadow, see the run gleaming in the
moonlight, with the poplar's tall top, rising
straight and still as a steeple's spire, above the
the dark belt of woods on the back ground.

Beyond that wood is the old Dunker grave-
yard, where several members of the farmer's
family are interred ; you cannot see their tomb-
stones, but you know they are there, shining
white and still in the cold moonbeam : you look
aloft, where the stars are burning, and, perhaps,
some serious misgivings of the lonely life you
are leading — some true notion of the vanity of
your earthly aims comes over you, as you think
of that cluster of graves before those steadfast,
far away lights.

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 79

At that inexplicable instant, even while your
mind is oppressed with its new feeling, the voice
of old Barleycorn is heard loudly calling for
you to come down. Accordingly, down you go ;
and before you are up to what he is after, he
carries you out on the porch and bids you listen.
For a few moments you distinguish nothing but
the hoarse bay of some neighbor's farm dog,
echoed back by your pointer in the stable, and
the subdued, familiar roar of the rushing wa-
ters ; but old Truepenny, who knows what he
is about, lays his hand on your arm, and then,
for the first time in your life, you hear those
mysterious and much-disputed notes, which
Nuttall and one or two others have described so
well.

Your hat and storm-jacket are on, and the old
man, omnipresent, leads you down to the low
grounds, where, careless of agues, he hides you
under an alder bush, and both remain quiet as
death.

Presently the woodcock's loud quack strikes
your ear, apparently within a few yards ; the
farmer points in the air ; you catch a fleeting
glimpse of the bird as he mounts, and at the
same moment hear a low, hurried, quavering
hum, which seems like an imperfect attempt at

80 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

the preluding of a song ; this dies away in the
air over head, and in an instant after is suc-
ceeded by a loud, distinct melody, so earnestly
emitted, and of such rapid continuance, as to
resemble the musical gushing of water, or the
reedy notes of a sylvan pipe, in which some
wayward urchin is blowing. It is, however, the
strains from a feathered songster's throat, and
becomes more clear and sweet the lower it
hovers in the air around ; until ceasing abruptly
it is followed by the usual "pa-a-ck" uttered in
a much lower key than before, and with a half
choking but curious emphasis, as if addressed
in appeal to some object near.

If you choose to remain at your post for an
hour or more, you may hear the serenade con-
tinued in this way with but little remission, and
even see the bird on the ground within a few
feet of you, its tail-feathers erected, and body
stiffly set on its legs, as with a ludicrous and
inimitable appearance of conceit it jerks out the
strange finale to its song.

The old man assures you, on returning to the
house, that the hen is close by, and that the eve-
ning performance, which appears so unique and
interesting to you, is literally an old song with
him.

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 81

A week or two later in the season, you chance
to be crossing the fields, on your way to the
village post-office, perhaps, with some four-
footed companion of your sports composedly
coursing your heels. You are passing along the
skirt of a wood ; it is a balmy April day ; the
wind is fresh from the south, and you seem to
scent the odor of early violets afar off, as cloud
after cloud flits through the blue air : you hear
the short familiar notes of the song-sparrow, ear-
liest and sweetest warbler of his tribe, and in-
stead of feeling poetically inclined, ten chances
to one that you are thinking on another visit to
the snipe grounds. If so, mechanically turning
your head, you glance back at your familiar,
and lo! as if living in your very thoughts, your
familiar is " at a stand."

There is a knostic yet half quizzical look in-
volved in the wrinkles in the old Trojan's por-
tentous face, which makes you think that he
has a tom:cat or a stray fowl skulking in the
bush ; and feeling a slight flutter of expectancy
yourself, bending low, you peer curiously about,
until suddenly, as by a flash, your gaze is ar-
rested at once, and little fairy, fairy bubbles
float up, as it were, from your heart to your eyes,
as amid the thin, dry herbage at the roots of a

82 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

»

bush, or a decayed stump, you see, within reach
of your hand, the woodcock brooding on her
nest.

By Jove ! here is a discovery. You almost
feel as if you had stumbled upon one of nature's
inscrutible secrets.

The old pointer is as steady as a statue ; the
wild bird seems wonderfully tame ; there is no
need to speak or to stir ; you may sit and gaze
your fill on that solitary spot.

What a rare and exquisite proof of the triumph
of maternal instinct is here !

How innocently calm — how replete with pa-
tient tranquillity, the large black eyes meet your
eager gaze — how quiet the wild thing sits, every
dusky brown quill and marbled feather in its
place, and the long, grooved bill resting on the
breast !

So full of abiding trust is the creature's cra-
dled look, that, lost in admiration at her appa-
parent unconcern, you scarcely think of the
eggs concealed in the nest beneath. It is as if
she had assumed that artless, unshrinking air
on purpose to beguile you of the treasures,
which, day and night, she so sedulously guards.
You may even put forth your hand and touch
her wing, and she will not shrink ; but if by any

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 83

species of subtlety you could place your finger
on the breast where the plumage is worn from
the skin, you might then feel a mother's heart
beating hurriedly within, in spite of the seat
maintained, the tranquil eyes, the composed and
unruffled plumes.*

So unstudied is the nest, composed as it is of
a dozen stalks of grass and a few withered leaves,
so fearless and full of faith to the end the atti-
tude of the bird, that it is long before you can
withdraw your eyes from the sight.

From how many hundred leagues in the far
south has the woodcock flown, to hatch her
brood at last in that chosen spot! For how
many days and nights by that old grey stump —
in sun, in wind and in rain — through how many
dangers past — has she kept her post ! How
often has that little heart throbbed with fear as
the hawk stole by on her hungry flight, or the
stealthy fox on his midnight prowl ! How often
have the winds beat and the floods came, and
the house built by the stump withstood the

* We attempted to remove the eggs from under a sitting wood-
cock, when, uttering a sort of soft murmur, she fluttered off to a
little distance, and remained watching our motions with evident
anxiety. We replaced them and turned away ; she then returned
to the nest, and soon after hatched her brood.

84 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

shock! And who so sure of his own sympa-
thies, as to make mock of the instinct, which,
until the end is wrought, mysteriously binds the
wing that has flown so far, to this charmed atom
of ground.

Now, call off your dog and go your way,
humbled like a child before the smallest mystery
of creation, yet devising, as you distinctively
glance at the trees, what should be done with
the market shooter, who, for the sake of the extra
shilling which game brings out of season, would
kill this bird on her nest.

Whether the female solely performs the duties
of incubation, or is assisted by the male, is not
for you to determine. Come to the spot at any
hour of the day which you please — sit there
from sunrise until dark, you will always find
the same bird on the nest, and while you are on
the watch she will not stir. It is true the mark-
ings of both sexes are the same, with a very tri-
fling difference, and both birds have the same
peculiar and somewhat bizarre look, imparted by
the long bill, the large and singularly shaped
skull, and the brilliant black eyes set high and
far back in the head. Nevertheless, you may
readily distinguish the sex by the greater size of
the bird before you, the superior length of the

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 85

bill, as well as the black tint on the back being
less intense.

But although you have not been able to de-
tect this fact, and cannot give a decided opinion,
yet reasoning from analogy, and from the circum-
stance of the male bird having been seen in
close proximity, it is fair to infer that while the
hen is abroad in search of food, more especially
at night, her partner takes her place.

There is good reason to suppose, however,
that her absence is but short, barely long enough
to satisfy the cravings of nature, and that she is
by far the greater portion of the time on the
nest.

A little later in the season you are walking in
the same woods. In a mossy and moist spot,
shaded by the boughs of some gigantic tree, a
bird suddenly flutters up and falls within a few
feet to the right or left of your path. It is your
woodcock; but never heed her now; be not
duped by her innocent stratagems ; bid Ponto
come to a "down charge;" step carefully over
the ground in every direction but that in which
the pretended cripple would lead you : sharpen
your eyes until you seem to see like a fly : aha!
you have them now ; the rogues have chipped
the shell; one, two, three; arid see, covered like
G

86 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

the rest, with a brownish white down of the
same hue as the withered leaf on which it skulks,
see here is the fourth. If you lift them gently
in your hand, listen to their feeble "peep!
peep!" touch their tender bills, and watch how
shrewdly each tiny urchin toddles off to hide
behind the tendrils of a surface root, or an empty
tortoise shell, you might almost take them for
the children of the fabled Mossmen.

And yet so helpless do they seem in that soli-
tary range of forest, that it appears almost a mi-
racle they do not fall a prey to the snake, the
raccoon, the opossum, and other voracious
prowlers of the night; But though feeble, they
«TOW fast, and the same maternal care which

O '

kept its vigil so long on the nest, is now equally
provident to supply and preserve the callow
brood.

A month later you are abroad again ; Ponto is
inclined to range out, and you to permit him ;
at length, after a little preliminary scouting, he
either draws up at the side of a rivulet, or, per-
haps, as if struck by a sudden reminiscence,
goes straight up to the foot of the great tree on
the same sombre spot, where the earth beneath
the dead leaves is still wet, although the ponds
and marshy nooks of the wood are beginning to

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 87

dry. As you approach, up spring the same brood,
now well feathered and strong, and darting
among the trees, pitch severally behind a bush,
run a few yards farther and skulk.

The two old birds are frequently found in
company, and here the whole family remain until
the increasing drought of summer drives them

O O

down to the shores of our large rivers, and the
" cripple shooting," as it is not inappropriately
called, begins.

When Frank Forrester, who sometimes belies
his nom de plume, tells you that the woodcock
regularly rears two broods in a season, he speaks
knowingly that which he knows not of.

We have lived for years in a part of the state
of Pennsylvania, where cocks have bred within
the memory of man, and we have paid great at-
tention to their habits, which are sufficiently
curious and interesting, albeit involved in such
obscurity that it behooves him who speaks of them
to weigh his words. In common with others
who have observed them as closely as their reti-
ring nature would permit, we are inclined to the
opinion that their nests are seldom seen in Penn-
sylvania before the fourth of April ; the period of
incubation is universally admitted to be twenty-
one days, which, allowing a month for the growth

88 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

of the young birds, will bring them far into May
before they are fully fledged.

It is true that nests have been found in March,
and it is said even in February ; but these cases,
like the late broods in June, are merely excep-
tions to the general law, and are dependent upon
accidental circumstances.

The idea of the hen turning over the tender
brood to the care of the male, while she proceeds
to incubate a second time, is not susceptible of
proof, is opposed to the belief of the best ornitho-
logists of the country, and even to the known in-
stinct of the bird. In our opinion, it is one of
those strokes of the pen intended to startle by its
boldness, when the author is really as much in
the dark on the subject as his readers.

In the forests of Montgomery, Berks and
Northampton counties, we have repeatedly found
them feeding in detached broods — two, three or
four young birds, fully fledged, in company with
the two old ones — near the last of May, and in
the months of June and July, if the season be wet.
When you first approach these insulated, marshy
spots, the birds lie close, and if you are so disposed,
as the woods are pretty open and free from brush,
you may easily make a double shot when they
spring. After that it is useless to mark down

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 89

the remaining birds, as they seldom admit the dog
to point them a second time while under the in-
fluence of their first fears.

Pass on until you come to another piece of wet
ground, when ten chances to one your dog points
again, and another brood springs. It is absurd
for writers to tell you that young cocks in July
are only half-fledged, and may be knocked down
with a pole. When flushed on the breeding
ground, their first flight, though seldom pro-
tracted beyond one hundred yards, is sufficiently
agile and vigorous to puzzle aught but a good
shot to bring both birds down; indeed, we have
known a young cock, refusing to lie a second
time to the dog, to fly entirely through a piece of
wood containing many acres, and take refuge at
last in the middle of a rye-field.

Indeed, if for the purpose of observation and
inquiry, you traverse the woods at this period,
you will be fully satisfied of the power of their
flight, by watching the rapid and dexterous man-
ner in which they dart among the surrounding
tree trunks, very different from the lazy, listless
way in which the old birds flap over a meadow
in the glare of day.

In making these remarks we would by no
means be understood to countenance cock shoot-
ing at this season of the year.

90 KKIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

When thus harassed, the birds leave the woods
and seek other quarters in the succeeding spring.
They formerly bred abundantly in Haycock
township, Bucks county; but some foolish fellow
from Bethlehem, having laid a wager that he
could kill a hundred birds in a day, in accom-
plishing this murderous feat, made cocks ex-
tremely scarce in this district for several succes-
sive seasons. We wrere told by an innkeeper on
the old Bethlehem road, that he saw this man
count out ninety-six woodcock on his bar-room
floor.

That they are much more abundantly diffused
over the country, than their peculiar habits lead
the inhabitants to suppose, there is no manner of
doubt. Mr. Krider remembers well an old far-
mer residing near Moorestown, New Jersey, who,
accidentally flushing cocks in his woods, pro-
cured a quantity of powder and shot, and being
somewhat conversant in the art of pulling a trig-
ger, in one day killed an almost incredible num-
ber, which he carried to the Philadelphia market,
to the great astonishment of the hucksters.

The birds were in the habit of breeding in the
same woods, and the old fellow, well satisfied
with his day's work, has been on the lookout for
the long bills ever since; and it concerns us to
state, to but little purpose.

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 91

Iii the summer of 1844, while visiting the
breeding grounds, in company with a young
friend, he unfortunately shot a hen-bird, while
engaged in performing those little interesting
manoeuvres by which she hoped to decoy our
steps from the vicinity of her unfledged young.
The brood, consisting of four half-grown birds,
were preserved and carried to the farm-house,
where two of them were accidentally killed the
same night, A box was procured, the bottom
strewn with soft earth and dead leaves, strips
nailed across to prevent the birds from escaping,
and the next morning they were placed in their
new abode. Being very wild and their bills
tender, great care was required in feeding them,
and it was necessary to cover the slats to prevent
them from injuring themselves by fluttering up
against the top of the box. The mode of forcing
them to feed which we at first adopted, was to
take them out of the box, open the bill and place
the worm athwart, when, after a few ineffectual
attempts, the birds took them down.

This plan succeeded well for a few days, when,
to our suprise and gratification, one bird readily
took his food from our fingers, and soon became
so tame as to require no further handling. The
other fellow continued as wild as before, and after

92 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

giving us a great deal of trouble, when nearly
full-grown accidentally received a tap on the
head with a finger, which, to our unfeigned re-
gret, killed it on the spot.

We have no objections to state, notwithstand-
ing the sympathy of Dr. Lewis for young cocks,
that, ogre-like, we did eat this bird without any
remorse of conscience, and found it very tender
and juicy.

The other bird did not appear to miss his wild
brother; perhaps, like bipeds without feathers,
he consoled his grief with the substantial reflec-
tion that he would now have the box and all the
larvae to himself. But this is scandal, for instead
of becoming proud and politic, he grew more gen-
tle and tame from day to day, and the reader has
no idea as he increased in grace how he gained
upon our affection. In truth, to speak without
quirk or quibble, we fairly loved that woodcock.
We had cause. He was certainly feeding on
those unpoetical gournaments, who were ulti-
mately destined to revel upon us, and he did this
three times a day, in such an easy, recherche
way, that we had no words to express our grati-
tude. The thing was too exquisite. It was re-
ally like carrying the war into the grim enemy's
country. We kept him amply supplied and he

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 93

fed equally well, when sharp set, at any period
of the twenty-four hours.

Often when' engaged in reading or writing at
night, in our little apartment, we have paused to
listen as we heard him moving about in his still,
prying way, turning over the dead leaves and
probing the crannies of the box in pursuit of his
prey. When the bars were removed, he some-
times flew out, and after making a survey of the
room — to ascertain, as we supposed, if a pet
spaniel was present — invariably took a position
close to our feet, which he was fond of playfully
striking at with his long bill. This was slightly
bent and protuberant at the middle of the upper
mandible, giving him a strange and somewhat
grotesque appearance.

We have often watched this bird attentively,
when he was engaged in feeding from surfaces
of different depths and consistency, which had
been purposely presented to him, after he was
full grown. When his food was merely thrown
out of a cup in the usual way, if not very hun-
gry, he would stand steadfastly eyeing the coil-
ing, twisting mass, waiting patiently until some
of its component parts had disengaged them-
selves, and crawled under the dead leaves or into
the angles or edges of the box ; then slowly in-

94 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES

sorting the end of his bill into their hiding places,
he drew them out one by one, and, lifting them
gently up, swept them into his gullet by a sim-
ple motion of the head and neck, and an almost
imperceptible movement of the tongue. If his
appetite was keen, however, he did not stand to
parley, but attacked the mass pell-mell, striking
and devouring each worm singly with astonish-
ing ease and despatch, until his wants were satis-
fied or not a single individual remained.

Before he was fully feathered the worms could
easily be observed twisting in his crop, as he sat
dozing at his ease, like an alderman after his din-
ner. No doubt some of our delicate readers will
regard this as rather an indifferent subject of
remark ; but we assure them, without intending
in the least to crack jokes, that the sight was
nuts to us, and we were at a loss to invent means
to glorify that woodcock.

The snake-bird — Plotus Melanogaster — which
does not even eat snakes, by the way, and the
secretary bird, which does — were mere gobbling
creatures of instinct compared with him. He
went to his feasts as scientifically and with as
much gusto as Lucullus himself. It really seemed
as if his whole tribe had owed the worms of the
earth an irreconcilable grudge since the days of

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 95

Adam. If so, they had no time to cry peccavi ;
they did not even wriggle at his bill's point ; but
almost seemed to glide voluntarily down his
throat, so quickly and evenly did they disappear.
Beholding this, we gave free vent to our glee,
and remembering a line of Lord Byron's, which
disagreeably intimates that man's body was made
"to clog the soul and feast the worm," we at once
came to the sage conclusion that a woodcock was
made for exactly an inverse purpose ; and not being
able to compete with his lordship's all-engrossing
verse, we contented ourselves with granting our
bird full supplies, besides decreeing him " the
garland of the war." And to say the truth, he
deserved it. He would empty a pint cup of the
small reptiles in twrenty-four hours ; and as for
trying his ingenuity by hiding them three or
four inches deep in the soft, moist earth, why a
covey of birds feeding in the stubbles, writh the
scent blowing freely from their feathers, had
about as much chance of escaping from your
pointer's nose, as the enemy from his infallible
bill.

But how did he proceed to effect this, you ask;
what was his system of tactics ? My dear reader,
compose yourself and listen.

When placed upon ground thus prepared, if

96 KRIDEll'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

his fast had been purposely protracted, he would
first industriously dibble the earth with his bill,
striking it rapidly a dozen times or more into the
cover, after the manner of a snipe ; then seating
himself on his breast, or more frequently stand-
ing in the middle of the box, he turned his large
full eyes intently on the holes thus bored, in a
very singular and knowing way. The first time
which we saw him in this attitude, we felt as-
sured of what w\is to follow, and that he was in-
stinctively acquainted with the habits of his prey.
Presently, after the lapse of a moment or two,
you observe his neck feathers slightly ruffle, and
that instant, with the quickness of thought, he
half turned his head, struck and devoured a worm.
In this manner he continued to feed, occasionally
shifting his ground a few steps and boring afresh,
until the whole space was thoroughly riddled and
not a single worm left.

We have observed him thus employed for more
than half an hour at a time, and have no doubt
that he was materially assisted in his operations
by the movements of the worms, which evidently
worked up towards the holes bored in the soil.
Whether he was guided by the sense of smell or
not, we are not prepared to say. In fact, some
experiments which were made at the time in re-

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 97

ference to this point, inclined us to think that
this sense was obtuse in our bird.

Mr. Bowles, an English traveller, who, many
years since, had the pleasure of observing wood-
cock feed in an aviary, supposed that they dis-
covered their prey by this faculty alone, because
he noticed that in boring they never struck their
bill into the earth further than the orifice of the
nostrils. The inference, however, is fallible, for
the reason that birds breathe chiefly through
their spiracles, and are very sensitive to the in-
troduction of any thing but air into them, as you
may easily satisfy yourself by noticing pigeons
and fowls when they drink, or feed upon soft
food.

The circumstance that the woodcock, as he
expresses it, " never missed its aim," is more con-
clusive. Microscopic dissection has revealed the
fact, that the bill of the bird in question is sup-
plied with a branch of the cranical nerves, the
minute filaments of which are distributed to the
knob at the end of the upper mandible, as in the
case of the snipe — scolopax Wilsonii — the tip of
whose bill after death becomes finely pitted or
dimpled, though in life it is very smooth; the
sense of hearing in birds is supposed to be much
more -delicate than that of smell ; the sight is the

98 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

most acute of all the other faculties; and in the
case of the woodcock, as before remarked, the
eyes are unusually large and full, and set high
in the skull to enlarge the field of vision by the
reception of the faintest ray of light which may
enter the dark coverts in which they feed ; so
that if we suppose that our woodcock, while
standing in his striking attitude over the holes
he had bored when the worms were buried be-
yond his reach, was actually scenting their pecu-
liar odor, listening to their movements in the
earth — like the woodpecker to those of the in-
sects which his death-taps on the surface have
started from the interior of the hollow limb — and
watching for them to crawl up in his sight or
within the length of his bill, we then have a
combination of four faculties admirably adapted
to the support of this bird in its wild state, when,
from its powers of digestion and the nature of its
prey, it is known to require a prodigious quan-
tity of food.

Woodcock have been killed at all hours of the
day, and yet those who have examined their ali-
mentary parts will tell you that they rarely found
a worm even in their crops, and never in their
stomachs ; hence the old and prevalent idea that
they abstracted the substance of the worm by

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 99

suction. By some men of no erudition yet of
ordinary intelligence, this absurdity is still be-
lieved.

However, without wishing to detract in the
least from the merits of Mr. Bowies' observa-
tions, we will no\v relate the course of our expe-
riments, leaving the reader to judge of the
result.

We took our bird from its place of confine-
ment at its usual feeding time, and buried in
each corner of the box two large earth-worms, an
inch and a half deep in the soft, black loam ; he
was then immediately replaced, and at once be-
gan to bore eagerly in the middle of the box,
where, for the purpose of observation, his food
was usually placed ; it was not until he had ex-
plored that spot thoroughly that he changed his
ground, and at last discovered and drew out the
objects concealed. We continued the experi-
ment until he fell into the habit of first searching
the corners of the box ; we then hid a dozen
worms the same depth, in the same kind of soil,
but in the old spot; the result was the same.
He first went to one corner of the box, and being
disappointed there, bored in another, and finally
returned to his usual place. We intended to
have carried our experiments farther, but being

100 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

obliged to go to the city, our stay was prolonged
for a fortnight, and upon our return, we found
the bird had died from neglect, or, as the farmer's
boys in whose care it was left, pertinaciously
asserted, from the effects of a surfeit.

Woodcock often return for successive seasons
to the same spots to rear their young. This fact
was long ago satisfactorily proved in England,
and in Pennsylvania nests have been found for
two springs in succession, beneath the same bush,
on a piece of slightly elevated ground sheltered
from the west winds by a woods. We have not the
least doubt of the identity of the inhabitant ; in
fact, this peculiarity is remarked in many other
migratory birds of a more familiar nature. Wil-
son, the father of American ornithology, whose
acuteness of observation was only equalled by his
regard for truth and his unobtrusive modesty,
repeatedly refers to it as not the least interesting
among the habits of the creatures he was called
upon describe.

The woodcock has been known to exhibit,
under certain circumstances, curious symptoms
of anger, somewhat similar to the pompous strut-
tings of the turkey. On the twenty-fifth of Au-
gust Mr. Krider was shooting in the mountains
of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, birds being

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 101

then numerous in this section of the country,
when a cock suddenly flew up and alit within a
few feet of the nose of his dog. It ran slowly
before the animal, dropping its wings, spreading
its tail, ruffling its plumage, and manifesting
every sign of impotent rage. Mr. Krider was so
surprised at these manoeuvres, never having seen
any thing of the kind in the woodcock before, that
when it sprung at last he missed it with both
barrels, and at the report of his piece, eight or
nine birds rose close to him, in a small, swampy
thicket where he started the first bird. From
the fact of this bird being of unusual size, he was
of opinion that it was a female.

Mr. William McGuigan also shot a bird in the
state of New Jersey, under similar circum-
stances. We saw this specimen in the Chinese
Museum, prepared in that gentleman's inimitable
way, exactly in the position in which it was
killed, and from a casual inspection of it, believe
it to be a female bird. A sporting acquaintance
of ours, while " cripple shooting," saw a bird,
which the dogs had flushed in the covert where
several cocks had already been started and killed,
alight on the bank, and perform the same eccen-
tric movements within a few feet of him.

In the summer of 1840, while we were con-
7

102 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

versing with a farmer who was engaged in har-
rowing corn, a cock suddenly flew out of a woods
and alit in a furrow close to the horses, who were
standing still at the moment. The bird did not
appear to notice us, but drooping its wings and
inverting its feathers, stuck its bill in the ground
several times as in the act of boring ; before we
had an opportunity of noticing it further, the rat-
tling of the gears, caused by a movement of one
of the horses, startled it, and with a shrill cry it
flew back to the woods. Some rain had fallen
the night previous, and the soil was wet to the
depth of an inch or more ; the corn was still
short, and from our position on the fence we
could distinctly see the bird. Whether our pre-
sence had any thing to do with its actions we can-
not say ; possibly, if it had remained a few mo-
ments something might have followed to eluci-
date the mystery.*

Woodcock shooting in the immediate vicinity
of Philadelphia, like snipe shooting, has declined
within a few years and from similar causes, but
not to the same extent. Great numbers of birds
are still shot in the months of June and July

* Woodcocks are sometimes seen boring into decayed stumps for
wood-worms. We once saw a bird thus engaged in the crotch of a
•lead willow tree.

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 103

along the banks of the Delaware, by those who
pursue this sport for pleasure or profit. It is
quite a frequent occurrence in favorable seasons,
for two or three good shots to kill from twenty to
thirty cocks before nine o'clock in the morning,
between the navy-yard and the mouth of the
Schuylkill, a distance of five miles. In fact,
to enjoy this kind of shooting at all, you must
be up and off long before sunrise, so as to be
on the ground and have your sport over be-
fore the heat of the day. If the weather has
been dry for some time previous, you may be cer-
tain of finding birds in " the cripples," that is,
if your purpose has not been forestalled by some
detachment of bank-shooters, who would appear
to have slept on their arms under the trees in
some adjoining meadow, so as to commence the
action as soon as it is light enough to shoot, The
vociferous clamor and continued firing of the
sharp-shooters, when birds are abundant, furnish
no bad representation of a skirmish in the gray
of dawn, while their flushed faces and constant
dodging up and down the bank (often loading as
they run) to keep pace with the yells of their
canine assistants and the shouts of their compa-
nions in the covert, in no wise detract from the
merits of the scene. It is customary for them to

104 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

go in parties of four, two of whom enter " the
cripple" with three or four setter dogs, while one
of the others remains on the bank, and the other
takes his place on the "drift" on the outside of
the cripple nearest the river.

Spaniels, by the way, are held in little esteem
for this arduous sport, and they who use them
select a stock much stronger and hardier than
the little English cocker, which is worse than
useless. The last soon fag in the heavy, encum-
bered ground, and after a little experience in
what they are expected to do, learn to skulk, or
to answer their excited master's "hie on !" with
shrill, helpless cries of concern, as if to intimate
that they are sorry for it, but really the thing
will not do. Setters, being better able to stand
the work, on the contrary, take so kindly to it,
that they often give tongue on every bird, and
acquire a habit of flushing game, which, of course,
destroys their utility as field dogs. It is seldom
that even the best bred setter, if encouraged, sea-
son after season, to range and hunt out a cripple,
can be depended on out of it ; instances are, how-
ever, known, where dogs have seemed to com-
prehend exactly what was required of them, when
hunting the same description of bird in different
kinds of ground ; and we have heard of setters,

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 105

and more especially pointers, who, in the lan-
guage of the doggerel,

Would flush a woodcock in a swamp,
And stand it in the clear.

But these instances are rare, and if you have any
regard for the standing of your dog, do not suffer
him to enter a cripple.

However, the bank-shooters are at their sta-
tions; the dogs dash in, and presently you
hear a yell, followed by a shot, or a shout of
"mark! bird up!" from within, and a report or
two from the bank, or the outside, according to
the direction which the bird takes. You may
readily imagine what ensues, when you are told
that every step in the dark cover is in deep, black
mire, strewn with decaying drift-wood, and over-
grown with stunted trees, reeds and thick alder
bushes, and when the birds are put up rapidly,
the alarm-notes, firing, and yells of men and dogs
increase in proportion, while the affrighted ob-
jects of pursuit, driven from every covert by the
dogs, dart up and down the cripple, to fall vic-
tims at last to the unerring aim of the marks-
men. When the latter are up to their business,
few, indeed, escape, although it must be said that,
if the woodcock is naturally a stupid bird, as
.some people assert, cripple shooting is a rare

106 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

mode of quickening his torpid faculties. Under
the spur of its application he sometimes betakes
him to the wiles of his cousin, the snipe, turning
and twisting on the wing so as to elude the shoot-
er's aim — darting and flitting low round the trees
and bushes, so as to disappoint his most sanguine
calculations — now springing, with a shrill cry, at
his very feet, and now stealing away silently, at
his back, until the man grows bewildered in spite
of himself, his dog loses heart, and the bird by
sheer dint of its ingenuity escapes from them
both. It is ludicrous, in this case, to observe the
manner in which either manifest their chagrin.
The shooter besmirched, perhaps, from top to toe,
his face begrimmed with powder and his eyes
blinded with sweat, mutters his disappointment
in " curses not loud but deep," while Dash, in as
sorry a plight, looks wearily up in his vexed
face, with a despondent wag of his tail, as if,
though loath to admit the fact, he needs must own
that that cock was too much for him, too. This
is the kind of shooting against which many
sportsmen, with some appearance of pique and
more of justice, yearly exclaim. Should the
weather continue dry, it lasts from early in June
until the birds leave the cripples to moult, in the
month of August.

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 107

Some of the old haunts for cock along the Dela-
ware, were very famous in our young days. The
drifts or higher portions of the flats, where the
refuse of the tides had collected, were sure spots,
especially those where the fishermen resorted to
dig up worms. On the Cakehouse drift fourteen
or fifteen birds have been killed in one morning.
Hay Creek cripple was considered well worth
hunting out, and at the name of Whitehall many
an old cock shooter will start as at the sound of
a trumpet. This was situated on Hollander's
Creek, and was esteemed the best place within
ten miles around. The drift at the head of
Broad Marsh, below the Point House, and all the
drifts and cripples along the river and the creeks
running into it, were, and are at the present day,
excellent places for cocks in dry weather. But
if rain falls in any considerable quantity, the
birds then leave these places and disperse over
the meadows. Strange as it may sound to the
sportsman, many persons who shoot are utterly
ignorant of this fact. Mr. Krider was once in-
vited by a friend to shoot cocks in the neighbor-
hood of Wilmington, Delaware ; the season had
been dry, and many birds had been killed in the
cripples ; but a heavy shower of rain having wet
the meadows and corn-fields, the party hunted in

108 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

the usual places in vain, to the great annoyance

of , who, having found them abundant for

several successive days previous, could in no
wise account for the sudden disappearance.

" Where do you shoot snipe ?" inquired Krider,
after the other had completely exhausted him-
self and his patience in his fruitless endeavors to
show sport.

" In yonder meadow," answered ; " but

you will find none there at this season."

" Let us try, nevertheless," said Krider.

After much persuasion he consented to lead
the way, and in this meadow they killed twenty-
seven cocks, to the great delight and suprise of

, who was now extremely anxious to visit all

such golden spots within the compass of a day's
hunt. The party brought in forty-five birds at
night-fall, every one of which was killed in the
meadows.

On another occasion, in the year eighteen
hundred and forty-one, Mr. Krider, in company
with a friend, killed sixty-three birds in a range
of meadows and a maple swamp near Rights-
town, New Jersey, by ten o'clock in the morn-
ing, returning to Philadelphia the same day.
The ground at this place has been so much im-
proved since his visit that few birds are to be
found there at the present day.

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 109

At most of the places mentioned in the article
on snipe shooting, cocks are abundant in July if
the grounds be sufficiently wet ; but at Port Penn,
Delaware, some distance in the rear of Price's
hotel, there is a maple swamp, surrounded by
very thick tussock meadows, which was and,
perhaps, is still very excellent ground. On one
occasion, three shooters killed ninety -three birds
before mid-day among the tussocks and in the
swamp. We have at times found them abund-
ant in the mountainous parts of the state in Au-
gust, September, October; and on the tenth of
November, when partridge shooting, in Lehigh
county, we killed in the woods seventeen of the
finest birds which we ever saw bagged. It is
worthy of remark that, in the fall of 1845, we shot
two woodcock in a meadow, where a few moments
afterwards, the dogs pointed snipe. This oc-
curred in Montgomery county, on a small branch
of the Perkiomen Creek, watering a valley a short
distance from the little village of Salfordville.
While killing a few partridges for the table, we
unexpectedly started three cocks from among
some scattered bushes which bordered a small
run. Upon examining these, it was discovered
that they had not yet done moulting. A few
hundred yards further, six or seven snipe were

110 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

sprung exactly in the place where we expected
to find them, and while charging, a young dog
in company, escaping our notice for a moment,
ran out and stood in a piece of sedgy ground,
partially covered with rank grass and rushes.
On our approach he was staunchly backed by
the old dog, and two more cocks sprung. The
last proved to be in the same condition as the
others ; but though we beat this meadow care-
fully and several others in the course of the
afternoon, we saw no more birds, nor have we
ever found them since in a meadow at this sea-
son of the year.

When hunting ruifed grouse in October,
among the stony hills of Montgomery and Berks,
we have sometimes killed cocks in small spots of
black marshy ground in the very midst of the
huge gray rocks, from some one of which a
spring issued. During the heat of summer we
have found them in dense, dry thickets and
copses not far from the feeding ground, and when
driven out into the glare of day they almost in-
variably pitch close to a fence, or a tree, as if
blinded by the light. There is a small species
of hawk which builds its nest in a retired part
of the woods, and is a great enemy to these birds
on the breeding ground. We have never been

WOODCOCK SHOOTING. Ill

able to shoot or trap it. It has a shrill scream;
is between the size of a sparrow-hawk and the
falco columbarius, and is exceedingly watchful
and wary. It often visits the orchard and the
vicinity of the barn-yard early in the morning to
carry off young chickens. We have several times
seen it swoop down from the topmost branch of
a tree and seize a woodcock, and have spent
hours in the woods on foot and on horseback fol-
lowing its cry in vain endeavor to shoot it, or to
discover its nest. A son of the farmer informed
us that he had twice found the latter near the
top of very tall trees ; in each case the young
birds had flown, and the bottom of the nest was
covered with the bones and other remains of va-
rious small birds. Its cry is heard in the deepest
part of the woods, at all hours of the day ; its tail
is barred with white ; but wiiether it is the falco
velox of Wilson or no, we are unable to say.

We certainly never felt inclined to doubt the
accuracy of Audubon's remark that the wood-
cock never feeds on salt marshes, until last sum-
mer, when we were requested by one of a party
of four at supper, to taste a portion of a bird,
which we did in turn, and all agreed that it was
decidedly sedgy. This bird was one of eighteen
which had been killed in a meadow below

112 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

Pennsgrove, on the previous day. by two of the
party present. They were served up with their
heads on, so that no deception could have been
practiced had the circumstances warranted such
a suspicion. Brewer has remarked that a per-
son, technically ignorant of ornithology, would
at once pick out a woodcock from a snipe, from
something peculiar in its appearance. Besides
the "plumed tibid, the tarvi are much shorter,
and shows that the bird is not intended to wade,
or to frequent very marshy situations, like the
snipe. The plumage of the former is also of a
more sombre shade."

When found in a meadow they are much
more easily killed than snipe, and with steady
dogs very few ought to escape. This bird, like
the snipe, has a remarkably game look ; some
sportsmen before consigning them to the bag,
display as much fondness over them as the two
executioners so admirably described in Quintin
Durward, were wont to do over their victims,
with this difference, that the latter spoke to liv-
ing and the former to dead ears.

THE RICE-BUNTING, OR REED-BIRD.

EMBERIZA ORYZIVOKA.

Description. — " The rice-bunting is seven and
a half inches long, and eleven and a half in extent.
His spring dress is as follows : Upper part of
the head, wings, tail, and sides of the neck, and
whole lower parts black ; the feathers frequently
skirted with brownish yellow, as he passes into
the colors of the female ; back of the head, a
cream color ; back, black, seamed with brown-
ish yellow; scapulars pure white; rump and
tail coverts the same ; lower part of the back,
bluish white ; tail, formed like those of the wood-
pecker genus, and often used in the same man-
ner, being thrown in to support it while ascend-
ing the stalks of the reed ; this habit of throwing
in the tail it retains even in the cage ; legs, a
brownish flesh color ; hind heel, very long; bill,
a bluish horn color; eye, hazel. In the month
of June this plumage gradually changes to a
brownish yellow, like that of the female, which
has the back streaked with brownish black;

114 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

whole lower parts, dull yellow; bill, reddish
flesh color; legs and eyes as in the male.
The young birds retain the dress of the female
until the early part of the succeeding spring;
the plumage of the female undergoes no ma-
terial change of color."

We have nothing new to say of this well-
known and delicious bird. It visits this part of
the state early in May, when the song of the
males is heard in every meadow.

Such was the impression made upon us, last
spring, by the sweet, tinkling notes which pro-
ceeded from a large flock perched on a willow
tree, that although in search of specimens at the
moment, we took the gun from our shoulder
and forbore to shoot. The actions of the male
while singing reminded us somewhat of those
of the canary. The notes are tiny and delicate,
like those of a small musical-box, but extremely
rapid, short and varied, and very expressive of
an etherial lightness of spirit. If the listener
closes his eyes for a moment, he might almost
imagine the presence of some fairy beings, ca-
rolling in the air to the praise of the new-born
May. In an instant, however, the concert ceases,
and, opening your eyes, perhaps you see the
whole flock in the act of alighting on the ground.

THE RICE-BUNTING, OR REED-BIRD. Ho

In a few moments they fly to the tree again, or
upon a rail fence, when the song is resumed
with the same sweet and surprising effect.

They remain but a week or two, and then
pass to the northward and eastward to prepare
their nests. When the hen is sitting, the notes
of the male are emitted in the air near the nest,
and have been pronounced to be in reality more
pleasing than those of the European sky -lark.
They have no song in the fall, merely uttering
their usual chink, with which almost every one
living in the vicinity of the city is familiar.

We killed numbers of these birds in Septem-
ber last, in the corn-fields of Montgomery, and
found many of them in very good order. The
same season, partridges being- very scarce, we
shot many of the alauda magna, or common
meadow-lark, which were unusually abundant,
and in better order than we remember to have
ever found them before. The young birds were,
in fact, hardly inferior to the partridge, and we
continued to supply our table with them until
the severe weather set in, when the flocks dis-
appeared. The shore or winter-lark was also
more common than usual in this section of the
country. They fly in flocks of from twenty to
a hundred, and have a shrill, pitiful note, some-

116 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

what similar to that of the killdeer plover, but
much less loud and distinct. They are as large
and quite as plump as the reed-bird in Septem-
ber, and make a very agreeable variety for the
table. On a twenty acre rye-field, which had
been strewn with manure during the winter, we
killed sixty-three of these birds in the month of
January. Before the flock rises they sometimes
make a low, curring noise, and after having
been shot at, circle swiftly round the field seve-
ral times before they alight again. It is seldom,
however, that the shooter can knock down more
than two or three at a shot, as they fly loosely,
and never huddle together on the ground, ex-
cept when sunning themselves at noon. In a
state of captivity they are very wild and restless,
and we have never been able to preserve them
for any length of time.

Large flocks of the little fringilla linaria, or
lesser red-poll, appeared in the fields during the
past winter. We shot great numbers of them
feeding in the stubbles, especially before a
storm; and, as far as our experience goes, they
are all marked at this season with the crimson
patch on the crown. In. a few, the color of the
patch was less decided than in others ; but out
of hundreds which we examined, not a single

THE RICE-BUNTING, OR REED-BIRD.

individual was found entirely destitute of it.
The rudiments of the red patch on the breast
and rump can always be distinguished on the
young males in their winter dress. In some of
the adults it is of a rose color, and in others of a
blood-red. On some occasions we found the flocks
dispersed in the woods, gleaning from the twigs
of the tallest trees, and again observed them in
the low meadows, where they are fond of dab-
bling in the runs on a warm day. Their ap-
pearance, however, was always uncertain, and
after being shot at several times, the flocks often
disappeared for a time from the vicinity. They
thrive in confinement, and have a peculiar chir-
rup, very different from their usual call, which
resembles that of the yellow-bird (fringilla tris-
tis) and of the canary. We sent a female red-
poll, which had been slightly injured on the
wing, to a lady in Philadelphia, where we saw
it in perfect health, some weeks afterwards, in a
cage with some canaries.

THE GRASS PLOVER.

BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER— PRINGA BARTRAMIA.

Description. — " The grass plover is twelve
inches long, and twenty-one in extent; the bill
is an inch and a half long, slightly bent down-
wards, and wrinkled at the base, the upper man-
dible black on its ridge, the lower, as well as the
edge of the upper, of a fine yellow ; front, stripe
over the eye, neck and breast, pale ferruginous,
marked with small streaks of black, which, on
the lower part of the breast, assume the form of
arrow-heads; crown, black, the plumage slightly
skirted with whitish ; chin, orbit of the eye,
whole belly and vent, pure white ; hind head
and neck above ferruginous, minutely streaked
with black ; back and scapulars, black, the for-
mer slightly skirted with ferruginous, the latter
with white; tertials, black, bordered with white;
primaries, plain black ; shaft of the exterior
quill, snowy, its inner vane elegantly pectinated
with white; secondaries pale. brown, spotted on
their outer vanes with black, and tipped with

THE GRASS PLOVER. 119

white ; greater coverts, dusky, edged with pale
ferruginous, and spotted with black; lesser co-
verts, pale ferruginous, each feather broadlj
bordered with white, within which is a concen-
tric semi-circle of black ; rump and tail coverts,
deep brown black, slightly bordered with white;
tail, tapering, of a pale brown orange color, beau-
tifully spotted with black, the middle feathers
centred with dusky ; legs, yellow, tinged with
green, the outer toe joined to the middle by a
membrane; lining of the wings, elegantly barred
with black and white ; iris of the eye, dark or
blue-back, very large. The male and female
are nearly alike. Weight upwards of three-
quarters of a pound."

This plump and finely marked bird appears
in the fields of Montgomery county, Pennsyl-
vania, about the middle of April, and sometimes
earlier. They are then in good order, not at all
shy at first, but after having been shot at, be-
come extremely vigilant and difficult to ap-
proach. For several weeks they frequent the
grass fields in companies of never more than
three or four, and early in May separate into
pairs. We have flushed the hen from her eggs,
deposited in a grass field, without any appear-
ance of a nest, on the tenth of May. In the

120 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

spring and during the summer, they have a pe-
culiar, prolonged scream, which they emit in
the air, on the ground, or from a fence-rail, on
which last they frequently alight, stretching
their slender and elegantly formed necks, and
opening and spreading their wings. At this
season of the year their sharp, rolling whistle is
comparatively seldom heard. They run and fly
well, but their suspicious manner of lifting their
heads readily betrays them on the ground, while
their strange cry often leads the shooter to the
field which they inhabit. Mr. Jacob Beck, an
old sportsman, who had killed many of these
birds in the month of September, was totally
unacquainted with their common note on the
breeding ground, and would not believe them to
be the same birds, until he had examined several
specimens, shot in the fields of Montgomery, in
the neighborhood of Perkiomen Creek. They
feed principally upon grass-hoppers and other
insects. We once killed a bird early in the
summer which had two large gooseberries in its
crop. In this part of the country they are called
regan-fegles, or rain-birds, from the supposition
that their scream is ominous of wet weather.
They will not lie to the dogs, and must be killed
by stratagem. In August they begin to leave

THE GRASS PLOVER. 121

the uplands with their young, though occasion-
ally a bird or two may be found in an old stub-
ble or clover-field in a remote part of the farm,
as late as the middle of September. They are
then excessively fat and very delicate eating.
The market shooters kill many of them in Au-
gust and September, on the meadows bordering
upon the river Delaware below the city, resort-
ing to many stratagems to cover their approach,
such as wading ditches, or secreting themselves
behind cattle and fences, while their compa-
nions steal on the birds on their hands and
knees. Unlike the golden plover, or bull-head
of the river shooters, this species is never found
frequenting ponds, or the banks of ditches, and
is never seen in large flocks in the upland
country, unless driven inland by storms.

The grass plover migrates in small bodies, and
almost every one has heard its whistle sounding
over the city, apparently from among the stars,
on a calm summer night. Both varieties some-
times sweep over the lower meadows in a long
extended line, flying low and with great swift-
ness. The grass plover is far superior in flavor
to all the other varieties, the golden plover per-
haps, excepted, and is much sought after by
epicures.

122 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

We believe this bird is not found in Great
Britain or upon the continent, the gray plover of
Ireland, which bears some resemblance to it, being
essentially different in its markings and habits.
It is said to be common in some parts of the vast
prairies of Missouri, but we are inclined to think,
is nowhere very abundant.

The kildeer plover has been with us all winter.
We found them in companies of ten or twelve
feeding in the rye-fields and low meadows after
a thaw. They were very fat and excellent eating.

THE BULL-HEADED OR GOLDEN
PLOVER.

CHARADEIUS PLUVIALIS.

Description. — " The golden plover is ten inches
and a half long, and twenty-one inches in extent;
bill, short, of a dusky slate color ; eye, very large,
blue black ; nostrils, placed in a deep furrow, and
half covered with a prominent membrane ; whole
upper parts, black, thickly marked with roundish
spots of various tints of a golden yellow; wing
coverts, and hinder parts of the neck, pale brown,
the latter streaked with yellowish; front, broad
line over the eye, chin and sides, of the same
yellowish white, streaked with small, pointed
spots of brown olive; breast, gray, with olive
and white ; sides, under the wings, marked thickly
with tran verse bars of pale olive ; belly and vent,
white ; wing-quills, black, the middle shafts
marked \vith white; greater coverts black, tipped
with white; tail, rounded, black, barred with
triangular spots of golden yellow ; legs, dark
dusky slate; feet, three-toed, with generally the

124 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

slight rudiments of a heel, the outer toe con-
nected, as far as the first joint, with the middle
one.

"The male and female differ very little in
color."

This is also a handsomely marked and delicate
bird for the table. It is, however, never seen far
inland in the United States, but chiefly frequents
the sea-coast, and the flat shores of such large
rivers as flow uninterruptedly into the ocean.
It is very common in the northern parts of
Europe, where it breeds on high and heathy
mountains. In North America it is supposed
to rear its young in the remote, Artie regions,
where the ground is more open and solitary, and
less covered with forests. Small flocks have,
occasionally, been seen for a day or two in Mont-
gomery county, whither they have been driven
by the September gales.

They are killed in September and October
along the Delaware and its tributaries, and
underline skilful guidance of Westley Stints-
man, the renowned paddler, we have sometimes
surprised and effected considerable execution
among flocks seated on the edges of ditches and
ponds on the meadows near the mouth of the
Schuylkill. The mode of approaching them is

THE BULL-HEADED OR GOLDEN PLOVER. 125

by silently paddling up the ditches and creeks
in a small, railing skiff when the tide is at its
height. This is done to the best advantage after
an overflow of the meadowrs. Like the grass

o

plover, it is said to lay four eggs of a pale, olive
color, variegated with blackish spots. We were
informed by a man who has killed great numbers
of these birds for the market, that they some-
times become so sedgy as seriously to affect their
sale. He attributed this to some change in the
character of the marshes in the neighborhood of
Salem, Alloway's, and other creeks, where he
was in the habit of shooting.

RAIL SHOOTING.

RAIL— RALLUS CAROLINUS— COMMON SORA RAIL, OR, LITTLE
AMERICAN WATER HEN.

Description. — "The rail is nine inches long,
and fourteen in extent; bill, yellow, blackish
towards the point ; lores, front, crown, chin, and
stripe down the throat, black ; line over the eye,
cheeks and breast, fine light ash; sides of the
crown, neck, and upper parts generally, olive
brown, streaked with black, and also with long
lines of pure white, the feathers being centred
with black on an olive ground, and edged with
white; these touches of white are shorter near
the shoulder of the wing, lengthening as they de-
scend ; wing plain olive brown ; tertials, streaked
with black, and long lines of white; tail, pointed,
dusky olive brown, centred with black, the four
middle feathers bordered for half their length
with lines of white ; lower part of the breast
marked with semi-circular lines of white, on a
light ash ground; belly, white; sides, under the
wings, deep olive, barred with black, white, and

RAIL SHOOTING. 127

reddish, buff; vent, brownish, buff; legs, feet,
and naked part of the thighs, yellowish green;
exterior edge of the wing, white; eyes, reddish
hazel.

" The females, and young of the first season,
have the throat white, the breast pale brown,
and little or no black on the head. The males
may always be distinguished by their ashy blue
breasts and black throats."

During the summer months, the flat shores of
the Delaware, in winter so bleak and devoid of
interest, present to the stranger's gaze a spectacle
of unwonted beauty. Standing upon the long
embankment which keeps off the tides from the
range of meadows behind him, he sees a vast,
waving belt or border of bright, luxuriant green,
extending from the base of the bank to the low-
water mark, and stretching along the course of
the river, in rich, dense array, as far as the eye
can reach. When the tall reeds which compose
this magnificent fringe, have attained their full
height, their vivid verdue and slender feathery
tops, over and among which countless flocks of
birds are continually rising and settling, impart
an almost oriental character to these alluvial
marshes. The effect is heightened by the com-
pactness with which the wild plants grow, the

128 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

stifling heat which is endured among them on
an August or September noon, and the various
descriptions of animal life, with which, at this
season of the year, the miniature forest abounds.
The waters alternately leave the flats bare,
and cover them to the depth of four or five feet;
the reeds rise from the ooze by erect stems,
stout and strong below, and tapering away to
their tops which bend and bow with every pass-
ing breeze : upon the upper branches of these
panicled tops, the nutritious seeds which are the
bread of the wild birds of the air, are produced ;
yellow blossoms adorn the lower ones ; long,
sword-like leaves flaunt from the stems, and
drooping towards the water in the sultry silence
of noon, seem, at every cool splash, to woo the
embraces of the flood, or by their wild wavings
and rustlings in the wind, when the tide is
down, contribute not a little to the poetry of the
scene. The reeds also grow abundantly upon
the shore of all the tributaries of the Delaware,
upon its bars and low, marshy islands, and along
the ditches which intersect the meadows by the
river-side. Cattle are fond of them, and may be
daily seen straggling across the bank, and wad-
ing upon the edge of the flats, to browse upon
them on the flood. Many varieties of winged

RAIL SHOOTING. 129

insects sport among the leaves of the reeds;
minks and musk-rats prowl among the interlac-
ing roots at low water ; the large, golden-eyed
frog and the snapper crawl upon the ooze ; fish
swarm among the stalks on the flood ; the soli-
tary bittern roosts all day upon the higher por-
tions of the flat; the marsh-wren binds its
curious nest to the stalks, far above the dash
of the stormiest tides ; the restless swallow darts
to and fro in pursuit of gnats and flies, or pauses
to perch on the fragile sprays of the panicle,
which its weight bows in the gale ; woodcock
and snipe are found in " the cripples" and upon
" the drifts ;" red-winged black-birds, rice-bunt-
ings, teal, mallard and other marsh ducks, feed
upon the farinaceous seeds ; and here, above
all, millions of the Carolina rail, or little
American water hen, for ^several weeks find
a rich repast, on their annual migration to the
south.

The mystery which once hung over the
migratory movements of the whole genus, to
which the bird under consideration belongs, has
long been dispelled by the researches of the
ornithologist, and now only exists in the minds
of those who, from want of inclination or capa-
city, are cut off from the use of books.

130 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

Like Wilson's snipe, a few of these birds
breed in the Middle States. Few persons, in-
deed, have been fortunate enough to see the
nest of the Carolina rail. Mr. Krider, who for
several years has paid considerable attention to
the study of ornithology, has, however, he
thinks, discovered it more than once, built in a
bunch of coarse grass on the edge of the high
marshes. In looking over his rough notes, we
find that in the year eighteen hundred and
forty-five, he found a nest on the Broad Marsh
with the hen sitting upon it, cunningly con-
cealed from view by the top of a tuft of grass,
which was bent down and fastened to the nest.
She left her eggs with evident reluctance, steal-
ing away as it were, step by step, and constantly
looking back to watch the intruder's intentions.
We, ourselves, remember to have seen, some
years ago, at the house of a medical gentleman
of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, a pre-
pared specimen of the Rallus Carolinus, with
her brood beside her, which the doctor assured us
had been caught in his meadow on the previous
June. We have also killed rail in the same
month on a farm a few miles distant from the
former place. It is well known, however, that
the main body move on far to the north, return-

RAIL SHOOTING. 131

ing with their young late in the summer, when
on a calm, clear night, their cry may be dis-
tinctly heard in the air, as they pass over the
city to the marshes. Dennis Welsh, who for
many years has occupied the situation of a
watchman in one of the lower districts, and is
well known to the sporting world as the oldest
and perhaps the best pusher on the river, has
informed us that, year after year, he has never
failed to distinguish their voices sounding over
his head, while he was silently traversing his
beat at the dead hour of night. As these little
visitors have long been a source of pleasure and
profit to Dennis, who still prides himself on
never having missed a tide, when there was
water enough on the marsh to work his batteau,
there is something curious in the idea of the
veteran pusher mutely listening, night after
night, on his rounds for the decisive evidences
of their arrival, as if while fulfilling his functions
as guardian of the public rest, he was also, in
some sense, acting as watchman to his own
private interests in the fields of air. Others,
while fishing for eels at night on the outer edge
of the flats, have repeatedly been startled by
hearing rail alight singly in the water close to
them, and instantly swim in among the reeds.

132 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

Remaining with us several weeks, and afford-
ing much sport at a season of the year when
there is little else to shoot, they then depart for
the south even more suddenly than they came,
and the pushing-pole and the rail-box is laid by
until the succeeding year.

Their course through the Southern States
may be traced in the same manner as their
advance to the north in the spring, their appear-
ance in the different degrees of latitude occurring
at regular intervals, from Hudson's bay to the
shores of the great gulf. The idea is even en-
tertained that they extend their flight to the
south, beyond the limits of the continent. In
regard to their apparent feebleness of wing, it
has been long observed, that although from the
development of their legs and feet, and the pecu-
liar compressed shape of their bodies, it is evi-
dent that they are especially formed for running
in thick coverts, they have nevertheless been
observed during the morning and evening twi-
light, and in rough, windy weather, to fly entirely
clear of cover with great freedom and swiftness.
Hardly an old rail shooter but has seen them
occasionally cross wide streams like the Dela-
ware, when hard pushed by the boats. Late in
the season, when the finer variety of the reed

RAIL SHOOTING. 133

has been entirely beaten down by storms, we
have flushed rail which have flown away from
the skiff in zig-zag lines, like snipe. When the
reeds are in this condition, the birds may be
readily seen running and feeding on either side
of the boat, or arranging their plumage as quietly
as pigeons on a roof. We have often watched
their motions for ten minutes at a time, to the
great discontent of the pusher, who, like the rest
of his class, devoutly believed in the proverb,
that "a bird in the boat was worth two in the
reeds." On one occasion we saw a gun which
had been inadvertently loaded with powder and
wad only, discharged at a rail engaged in plum-
ing itself; the bird did not even discontinue
the business of the toilet, and was killed by the
second barrel without moving from its position.

In regard to the rail's being occasionally sub-
ject to epileptic fits, superinduced by paroxysms
of rage or fear, no satisfactory case of the kind
has ever come under the immediate notice of the
author or his editor. We were, however, shown
a bird during the past season, which was said to
have been shot at and apparently killed, but
afterwards revived and was found to be wholly
uninjured. It lived in good health for several
weeks. One of the persons in the boat which

134 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

picked up this bird, was an old friend of the
editor's, and we are inclined to place implicit
faith in his report. Dennis Welsh before no-
ticed, also remembers two or three cases of the
same nature in the course of thirty years' expe-
rience in rail shooting. In one instance, the first
bird which he flushed on the tide, fell dead at
the simple report of the cap, the gun missing fire,
which incident so affected the shooter, that,- after
examining the bird, he directed Dennis to put
back for the ferry, declaring that he would shoot
no more. There was a high tide rising on the
marshes, and Welsh, who always enters deeply
into the sport, ventured to expostulate; the gen-
tleman, however, was firm in his determination
never to kill another rail, and after deliberately
destroying his box with a large stone, called for
his carriage and departed.

" From what I could hear," said the pusher,
"I believe he has never been out since." An-
other sage old pusher and duck paddler, who
had also seen rail "play the 'possum," or kick
the bucket outright in this mysterious way,
gravely advanced the opinion, that although
these birds had not been touched by the charges
aimed at their bodies, they had nevertheless
died, indirectly, from the effects of lead in the

RAlt SHOOTING. 135

system, having been previously afflicted with
a species of disorder, which the learned faculty
call colica pictonum, produced by indulging in
morbid appetite for the pellets of shot, which
are so thickly strewn on the marshes. This,
the pusher thought, so debilitated their consti-
tutions, that the mere report of villainous salt-
petre, so annoying to Hotspur's human popin-
jay, was too much for them.

"The wital forces," said he, " couldn't stand
it no how; hence they eyther tuk fits straight,
or else straightened out in arnest."

That shot are occasionally found in the diges-
tive organs of water-fowl, is a fact known to
many sportsmen ; it is true, also, that paralysis
sometimes supercedes lead colic; these two
facts being undisputed, we leave old E.'s theory
to the attention of the curious without further
comment. There is really nothing extraordi-
nary in the idea, that intense apprehension
should produce insensibility and even death, in
a creature of such delicate organization as a rail,
and we are strongly inclined to think that Mr.
Orde — for whom we have great respect as the
friend and companion of WiiSon — mistook this
feeling in the cases which he adduced, for that
of rage. We have also full faith in the state-

136 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

ment of our friend, and in the experience of
Dennis Welsh. As for the other man's theory,
that carries conviction off its feet ; that speaks
for itself.

The rail is said to be a ventriloquist; very
respectable authority is also adduced for that
assertion, and, with a simple qualification, we
are disposed to believe it is a fact.

The lordly lion of the desert — the banded fox
of "the land of ice and snow" — the katydids
which sing so merrily in the forest; the little
cricket which chirps away at home in the
porch, but cunningly creeps in towards the
hearth when the nights grow chill — each and
all possess, in some degree, the power of de-
ceiving the ear. We have shown in a former
page how a dog became a somnambulist, and
are now ready to endorse the assertion, that the
whole family of the rails are — travelling ventrilo-
quists. One thing is certain, if they are capable
of counterfeiting death so cleverly, and of throw-
ing their voices into any corner they please,
they are accomplished birds, and it will not
do to stigmatise them "ninny hammers" and
"simpletons" any longer; we must hasten to
amend that. There is more point, as well as
magnanimity, in bestowing upon them the

EAIL SHOOTING. 137

familiar and somewhat endearing epithets of
''timid little water-fowl," "shy birds," as we
shall see when we get further on, when rail are
found baffling the bewildered pusher, by hiding
under the submerged reeds, to escape being
riddled by a charge of No. 8, or diving like
the devil or a bay black-head, to avoid being
knocked on the head.

It would be well, also, to remember that two
different branches of the family have been
raised to royal dignity ; the rattus elegans
being styled the king-rail in America, while the
rallus crex, by the unanimous voice of the
people of Old England, savants excepted, was
long ago crowned king of the tetrao coturnix,
the wandering and warlike quail.

Rail often leave the marshes and come upon
the dry meadows, seldom remaining there longer
than an hour or two, and never wandering far
from their favorite haunts. While crossing a
hard, dry meadow, from one marsh to another,
on the island of Spesutia, in October last, we
came upon numbers of rail which refused to lie
for the dogs, but rose from among the thin grass
and flew swiftly off to the rushes, about two
hundred yards distant. When shot in the
above situations, their crops have invariably

138 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

been found to contain minute fragments of
stone.

The disposition of the rail is strongly marked
by petulance and curiosity. Although by no
means manifesting the restless and spirit-like
energy which distinguishes the snipe, they are
far from being the stupid birds which it has
pleased some writers, in their infinite wisdom,
to represent them. Like woodcock, they often
display ingenuity enough to baffle the sports-
man, and were it not for the advantage of the
tides, we should have little or no diversion to
boast of in rail shooting. They are so inces-
santly harassed during their stay among us,
and keep so closely to their coverts at low-
water, that it is almost impossible to acquire
any intimate acquaintance with their habits.
From what has been observed of their domestic
relations, we have no doubt that in their reedy
homes, in warmer climes afar, they are sociabJe
and frolicsome birds.

When a person, totally unacquainted with the
habits of rail, is brought in a light skiff to the
very edge of the marshes, and informed that
myriads of the interesting birds which have so
long attracted the attention of the sportsman and
the naturalist, are at that moment sleeping, feed-

RAIL SHOOTING. 139

ing, pluming, warring, idling or making love in
the reeds before him, seeing nothing of these,
and hearing only the chuck of the black-bird, and
musical cliinU of the rice-bunting, he naturally
asks for ocular proofs of the assertion, unwilling
to believe,

" Without the sensible and true aA'Ouch
Of his own eyes."

Ridiculing the idea of his inability to put them
up, if there, perhaps he demands to be landed
forthwith, and, gun in hand, eagerly pushes his
way among the reeds, while his more experi-
enced companion, chuckling to himself, quietly
lies on his oars to await his return. The first
soon looses his way in the dense, sultry covert,
and after some shouting and calling, at last
makes his appearance again in a very sorry
plight, covered with marsh-mud, out of breath,
and more disposed than ever to adhere to his
heresy ; declaring that while the reeds seemed
to be alive with other birds, he had been unable,
after the sharpest scrutiny, to discover even the
tail-feather of a single rail. Something he did
see once running swiftly between the reeds ;
but it vanished too quickly for him to say
whether it was a bird, or a water-rat. After en-
joying the joke, his friend ro\vs the skiff up one

140 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

of the guts of the marsh, and concealing it among
the reeds, directs the other to draw and reduce
his charges. This being done, after bidding
him fix his eyes on a particular spot where the
tide is leaving the mud bare, he knocks quickly
with his brass rowlocks on the gunwale of the
boat. A sharp, peculiar cry, caught up and re-
peated from a hundred throats, is immediately
heard, a remarkably neat, trim looking bird in
a sort of quaker motley, suddenly runs out upon
the mud, jutting up its tail and erecting its head
with a curious air, as if to inquire what is
wanted; — the gun is levelled — the trigger touched,
and the stranger has "mudded" his first rail.
He springs up in his ambush in hot haste to
secure the prize, but his companion, repeating
his commands to keep quiet, knocks again. The
small hubbub, consisting of many and rapid re-
iterations of the monosyllable crek, again arises ;
a second bird appears on the same spot, and
immediately shares the fate of the first.

" Now," says the operator, who it appears
from the pole projecting over the stern and the
square tin box, carefully stowed away in the
bow, is to initiate his friend still deeper in the
mysteries of rail shooting, before the day is
spent, " now re-load, and when another bird

RAIL SHOOTING. 141

comes out, do not shoot at him at first sight,
reserve your fire for a moment."

" And wherefore ?"

" You will see," is the reply.

The experiment is now repeated with similar
results, except that when the third rail appears,
after looking inquisitively round, it stoops to
examine its prostrate companions, and with that
strange misapprehension of death so often mani-
fested by the brute creation, begins to make war
upon the inanimate bodies, striking with bill
and heels after the manner of a game-cock.
Perhaps two or three come out upon the
mud at the same moment ; one struts around the
dead birds ; another offers amatory caresses ; or
all join in a sort of mimic battle royal, like so
many pullets in a barn-yard. They may be all
killed at a single discharge, but if unmolested
the contest is speedily ended by one of the party
whimsically running back to cover in a circuit,
when the rest immediately follow.

As the tide continues to recede, the rail follow
for the purpose of gleaning up the seeds and
small insects which are left behind, and many
birds are killed, in the way described, by per-
sons who station their boats in the guts, just
after high water. At low water not a single rail

142 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES

is to be seen ; but when the next tide is risen
sufficiently for the boats to get upon the flats,
then commences a scene of life and emulation —
of incessant loading and firing — of rapid gliding
hither and thither among the reeds, which, if
ten or fifteen parties are engaged on the same
marshes, requires to be seen, to be fully under-
stood. Let us suppose that the tide, which is
rising fast, with a stiff breeze from the south-east,
is as favorable as could be wished, and that the
moment has arrived when the pushers, laying
aside their oars, prepare for business, while the
sportsmen opening their rail-boxes and charging
their guns, station themselves in a standing posi-
tion to shoot. The post of the pusher is in the
stern ; that of the shooter a little abaft the bow.
Each pusher is stripped to his shirt and panta-
loons, and holds in his sinewy hands a pine pole
fifteen feet long, and weighing about four pounds.
It is his arduous task to flush and retrieve the
game ; the sportsman has nothing to do but to
load and shoot. A square tin box, made as small
as is convenient, and containing in its several
apartments ammunition, percussion caps and wad-
ding, lies at the feet of the last. These boxes
are now both neatly and strongly made; that
sold by Mr. Krider during the past season was

RAIL SHOOTING. 143

by far the best pattern of the kind we have seen.
Many rail shooters prefer using shot cartridges
on account of the fraction of time saved in load-
ing ; others — and we are of the same opinion,
ourselves — suppose that they can kill more birds
on a tide with loose shot, and a few, it is said,
have been hair-brained enough to shoot shot car-
tridges, made small for the bore of the gun, with
the charge of powder filled in. These are set
up in the box before them, the end of the pow-
der charge being left open, and they drop them
down the barrels, assisting their descent by a
stroke of the butt on the footboard of the boat,
when the gun becomes foul : the use of a load-
ing-rod is thus dispensed with altogether, and
an additional fraction of time saved, which, as
they assert, always tells when rail are thick on
a fly on a full tide. Many wild stories are afloat
respecting the wonderful facilities for rapid exe-
cution afforded by these cartridges; but as nei-
ther the editor nor the author have been tempted
to try them, we, of course, cannot vouch for
their truth. We still adhere to our loading-rods,
which are made several inches longer than the
barrels to admit the full grasp of the hand, and
sufficiently stout to be driven home at a single
effort. A common ram-rod is inadmissible into

144 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

this kind of shooting, in which dexterity and
despatch in loading are necessary to the full en-
joyment of the sport.

As the different boats enter the reeds at vari-
ous favorable points, we will first notice that fat,
angry looking gentleman in the blue skiff, with
the one-eyed, quizzical genius at the stern. The
fat gentleman is a tyro, as clumsy as a cow in the
boat, and a very indifferent shot. He is more-
over exceedingly irascible and seems to suffer
much in his unusual position, while the blinking
scamp behind him is as cool as a snow-ball.
There has already been some sparring between
them respecting the 'price of the tide, and the
pusher, who is not without his slice of humor,
has made up his mind to victimize his quondam
employer. This is easy enough when one is in
his element, and the other out of it, and woe to
that fat gentleman who has been tempted, in an
evil hour, to leave trade and come out for sport ;
for the other, incensed at his attempt to jew him
down, is determined to make sport of him.

The skiff glides smoothly in among the reeds,
the pusher on the qui vive for mischief, while the
shooter maintaining his equilibrium as well as
he can, commends himself to his dignity and
keeps a sharp look out.

RAIL SHOOTING. 145

" Now," says the roguish pusher, gently lift-
ing and inserting his pole into the mud as the
skiff shoots into a thick growth of reeds, " Now,
sir, left leg forward — right leg behind — stand
steady — shoot quick — load fast, and leave -the
rest to me. Mark !"

"Bang! bang!"

A very palpable miss each time, and the bird
which has risen directly in front within a few
feet of the boat, nutters slowly over the tops of
the reeds, with its legs hanging loosely down,
and almost instantly drops out of sight again,
while the unfortunate marksman, thrown vio-
lently from his centre of gravity by a sudden
treacherous movement of the skiff, stumbles for-
ward over his rail box, and catching at the gun-
wale, pitches head foremost, gun and all, over
the bow.

" Why bless my soul !" exclaims the villainous
author of the catastrophe, with a great show of
surprise, " I never seed the likes. Did you do
that on purpose, sir ? You're the very quickest
gentleman out of a boat, I ever pushed. You
hit that rail too: I seed him drop his legs."

" Go to the devil!" exclaims the fat gentleman,
wiping his face and clambering back into the
boat in high wrath.

146 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

" Load up, sir, load up," answers the fellow
coolly ; " there is no time to tell fortunes now.
Look, sir, yonder comes Dennis Welsh and Bill
Starn pushing side by side."

I'D n Bill Starn!" mutters the other,

wiping off his gunlocks with a white handker-
chief.

" It's no use, sir, a breakwater wouldn't stop
the nigger. See how he ploughs through the
reeds like a steamboat. Ready, sir?"

" No, I ain't, you one-eyed scoundrel," growls
the tyro, fumbling at the lids of his box which
have been jammed into the partition by his fall.

" Well, sir, no hurry ; its my place to wait
upon you; if you've no pertikler rejection, I'll
tell you a story as how I lost my eye while
you're cleaning off the mash mud."

" You're an impudent son of a ," exclaims

the exasperated shooter, entirely losing sight of
his breeding.

"Pshaw, sir," replies the fellow, leaning on
his pole as coolly as before, " it's despurit hard
work for two dogs in one collar to pull different
ways. Besides the story'll make you laugh in
spite of yourself, and you'll be sartin to kill the
next bird. Once upon a time — "

" I tell you what," interrupts the fat gentle-

RAIL SHOOTING. 147

man, with savage deliberation, " if you tell that
story, I'll see you hanged before I pay you a
copper, sport or no sport."

" Sir," says the pusher in turn, " I hope you
won't be offinded, but I must tell you this much
of it — I wrore my eye out as the cat did her's,
watching the mice."

"Now," retorts the other, who has at length
managed to re-charge his piece, " now mind you,
fellow, if you give me — "

" Hush !" exclaims the pusher, pointing and
staring in his energetic way at some object on
his right hand ; " shoot, sir, shoot."

The fat gentleman starts, and catching a
glimpse of something swimming among the
reeds, levels his gun and fires both barrels.

" Hurrah !" shouts the pusher, frantically be-
taking himself to his pole, " you've pinked him —
you've settled his hash — you've mortalized your-
self on this mash."

"What is it?" demands the shooter in a state
of great excitement.

" What is it !" repeats the pusher, with a
glorious assumption of scorn, as he brings the
stern of the skiff to the spot, and carefully lifts
up the object by the tail; "you isn't much
lamed in Natarel Histery, is you, sir?"

148 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

" Why, no, not particularly," answers the
worthy cit, flushing still more.

" I thought not," says the pusher, shaking his
head and blinking awfully at the animal in his
hand, "well then, sir, I has to inform you that
you has done what no other man has parformed
in this here river for fifty years — you has killed
a young otter."

" No !" exclaims the other, staring hard in his
turn at the rogue's face, who stands the inquir-
ing gaze like a monument.

" Fact, sir, and now whether you pays me for
this here tide's shove or no, you're sartin to
figure in the Daily Ledger, the Sun, and all the
weeklies, not to speak of the New York
Spurrit."

" But is this really an otter, my good fellow?"
says the shooter.

" Sartainly it be ; I seed many a one in the
far west." (The mendacious rascal had proba-
bly never been west of the Schuylkill in his life.)
"Has you any acquaintance among the horno-
thology chaps, sir?" Does you know any of the
great skin-stufTers?"

" Why, no, I can't say that I do," answered
the fat gentleman, regaining his complacency
fast.

RAIL SHOOTING. 149

" It'll cost you ten dollars, at least, treating
the house, when we come in ; but in course you
won't mind that," says the pusher.

" The devil !" exclaims the shooter.

" I'll go a quart of Davy Hunter's best on it,
myself. Lay it up in the bow, sir, where it'll
have a chance to dry. If old Mr. Peale were
alive now, he'd ring down dollars for that ere
spissimin."

" I'll tell you what, my man," says the gentle-
man, " d 11 the birds ! I dare say that I

shouldn't kill many — just put me quietly ashore
at the ferry, and say nothing of this to no
one ; I'll pay you your charge, but, mind ye,
do you keep mum until I'm on my way to the
city."

" But they'll never believe me, sir; they'se a
mighty suspicious set at that 'ere ferry : they'll
swear I'm a bigger liar than Tom Pepper," says
the pusher.

" But you forget the papers," says the fat
gentleman, chuckling.

" Right, sir, my name is Shoemaker ; I should
like to go in with you, if you've no express
rejection. I'm not 'zactly a candydate for fame,
but seeing my name in print, may put an extra
job in my way."
10

130 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

'' We'll see — we'll see," says the gentleman
briskly ; " put her head about."

The pusher obeys with seeming reluctance,
and upon arriving at the ferry, receives his hire
and a shilling extra to treat himself, while the
fat gentleman, completely hocus-pocussed, wraps
the mine carefully up in his handkerchief, and
calling for his carriage, hurries away with his
prize.

Let us now return to the marsh; observe that
tall, athletic negro who is pushing the gentleman
in the green skiff; see how he plies his pole like
a plaything, forcing the boat ahead with a'
velocity which bears down every thing before
him, while so artistically is she worked, that
when a bird rises her motion is as steady as that
of a swimming swan. His white competitor in
the batteau is our old acquaintance Dennis
Welsh ; mark how easily and smoothly he makes
his way among the reeds, his man standing
steadily as a statue. It is evident from the style
which these two boats are propelled, and in
which the shooters knock down the game, that
the men are all crack hands at the sport. There
is a marked difference, however, in the modes of
pushing. The black, Bill Starn, as he is called,
careers over the marsh, like a wild horse on a

RAIL SHOOTING. 151

prairie, putting up birds on all sides and keeping
his man busy, while Dennis, who is at home on
every foot of the flat, glides along steadily and
evenly, flushing a bird at every boat's length, as
he edges gradually in towards the bank with the
rise of the tide. At one time four birds are on a
fly for each boat, nearly at the same moment ;
two are shot from the batteau, which, according
to agreement, carries but one gun, and three
from the skiff, which is privileged to use two.
These birds fall among the thickest of the reeds,
but being fairly hit they are all found. Bill
shows his teeth and rolls his eyes among the
reeds like a wild beast ; he sees like a hawk
and moves like the wind. He boats his dead
birds, is off again, and has two more down in a
moment. One of these, however, is crippled and
although the wild pusher strikes directly at it,
the bird evades the blow by disappearing under
water, while Bill, with a wild, African shout,
thrashing the reeds with his pole, continues his
career. Dennis follows more slowly, but as the
wind continues to rise with the tide, it is to be
seen that he keeps his man on a steadier level,
partly owing to the flat bottom of the batteau,
and partly to his long experience in pushing.
He flushes bird after bird as he advances, his

152 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

man shooting the instant the gun touches his
shoulder, and invariably riddling his bird. At
length while the skiff is still traversing the high
reeds, the batteau enters a space of about a half
an acre, covered with a species of water-weed
bearing a profusion of yellow nowrers. There is
just water enough upon it to float the batteau
easily, so well has the pusher hit his time. The
boat first takes the edges of the space in a wide,
circling sweep. Not a bird rises. " Bad show,
Dennis," says the sportsman. But Dennis knows
better, and still continuing his course but con-
tracting its circle, the rail at last begin to show
themselves. Three are killed successively, and
two more the instant after. " Let them lie,"
says the old stager, waxing warm and plying his
pole like lightening; "kill them dead, sir, and
they won't move." The game now rise so fast
from among these yellow flowers, that the
shooter's dexterity in loading comes first into
play, and, it must be acknowledged, he shows
himself an adept. Sixteen birds are down at
one time, and being killed according to the
pusher's instructions, he does not lose a feather.
In this comparatively small space of the marsh,
thirty-six birds are boated, not a rail being
missed, or pinioned, or escaping Welsh's sharp
eves after b?inir knocked down.

RAIL SHOOTING. 153

In the mean time the skiff is nearly lost sight
of among at least a dozen others, which, from
the rapid and continued firing, appeared to be
having good sport. It is to be noticed, however,
that Bill's man begins to shoot with less certainty
than before, and that the second gun is less
frequently brought into requisition. The rail
also seem to display more life upon the wing;
they fly swifter and further. The wind has
increased to a half a gale, and a portion of the
rest of the shooters are observed to be making
bad work.

" The tide will be up to the top of the bank,
sir," says Bill, "but the daylight will hardly
last it out."

" Aye," answers the shooter, " we must get
further in : the water is driving the birds towards
the meadows."

At this moment a report like that of a six
pounder is heard among the boats, followed by a
dense cloud of smoke. Some shooter has blown
up his rail box. On goes Bill without giving
the accident a second thought ; but the indefati-
gable Dennis is there before him, and now com-
mences a trial of sportsmanship between the two
boats, which is exciting enough when viewed
from the bank. They are pushing side and side

154 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

within fifty yards of each other, flushing and
dropping their game in a style not to be excelled.
Bill manages his boat beautifully under the cir-
cumstances, and his man shoots now remarkably
well. But his opponent is equally sure, and the
extraordinary rapidity with which Dennis spins
the batteau, as it were, on her heel, in retrieving
a bird which has fallen afar on either hand,
while the skiff is obliged to push stern foremost,
or to make a curve line for the same purpose,
gives the first a slight but decided advantage.

" Hurrah, Dennis !" shouts a fellow in a third
boat, as two double shots successively occur to
the batteau; "old Grey steel forever!"

Looking at the man we at once recognize our
ci-devant original who "done" with the fat gen-
tleman on the first of the tide. He has now
another jolly -look ing shooter in charge, a very
different person, however, for we see at once it
is our friend Major F. who, although last on the
marsh, we will wager a dozen, will not come off
least. A moment after two birds spring and
cross, and are killed from the skiff at a single
shot.

" Hurrah !" shouts a United States officer from
the fort, waving his cap, " that is what I call
sport."

RAIL SIIOOTIXG. 155

A flock of teal, with the singular temerity
which sometimes marks the flight of these dainty
little ducks, now shoot across the meadow and
wheel directly over the boats. Neither shooter
gives the least token of their presence, and Den-
nis's man kills a king rail, which happened to
rise at the moment, as expeditiously as ever.
The Major being under no such restrictions does
not fail to salute the unexpected visitors right
and left, dropping three with one barrel and two
with the second. Well done, Major; we have
had a taste of your sportsmanship ; we have seen
a specimen of your shooting before. The con-
test is continued till the sun sinks on the scene,
and the shades of evening drive the boats from
the flats, just as the tide begins to fall. On
counting the game, it is found that one numbers
a hundred and four and the other ninety-seven
birds. It was a tight match, and the batteau
has beaten the skiff' by seven birds.

Such animated scenes as this, gentle reader,
varied by other incidents, occasionally of a serious
nature, occur upon the flats of the Delaware arid
Sclmylkill every day during the season, when
the state of the tide will permit. They continue
for four or five weeks, when the rail suddenly
migrate at night, and as the reed birds generally

156 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

depart before, the marshes are comparatively
silent and deserted; the reeds wither and are
beaten down by the equinoctial gales, and as the
season advances, the flats assume their old bleak
and desolate aspect, relieved only by the appear-
ance of the crow and the wild duck, or by that
of some solitary snipe shooter slowly traversing
the drifts with his dog.

Before concluding this article, we would
mention that rail have been and are still hunted
on foot, on the flood tide. We remember re-
peatedly to have seen our old acquaintance,
Major Deadshot, wading up to his middle on
the Broad Marsh, with his dogs, Bob and Dash,
swimming around him, and upon more occa-
sions than one, on a scant tide, he has been
known to bring in more birds than "the best
boat." We are informed that he has killed his
usual quantum of rail in this way during the
past season, and excepting that his famous dogs
have gone the way of all flesh, he is still the
same veritable Major Deadshot, upon whom we
looked with undisguised reverence, when shoot-
ing had an undefined and mysterious fascina-
tion for us, in the happy days of our boyhood.

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING.

THE AMERICAN PARTRIDGE— PERDIX YIRGINIANUS.

Description. — " The American partridge is nine
inches long, and fourteen in extent; the bill is
black; line over the eye, down the neck, and
whole chin, pure white, bounded by a band of
black, which descends and spreads broadly over
the throat ; the eye is dark hazel ; crown, neck
and upper parts of the breast, red brown ; sides
of the neck, spotted with black and white on a
reddish brown ground ; back, scapulars and les-
ser coverts, red brown, intermixed with ash, and
sprinkled with black; tertials, edged with yel-
lowish white ; wings plain dusky ; lower parts
of the breast and belly, pale yellowish white,
beautifully marked with numerous curving spots,
or arrowheads of black ; tail, ash, sprinkled with
reddish brown ; legs, very pale ash. The female
differs from the male in having the chin and
sides of the head yellowish brown."

The young broods are fit for the sport by the
twentieth of October, and although inferior to

158 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

their parents in stratagy, fly to cover with equal
swiftness and less appearance of labor. They
are, however, incapable of sustaining long flights,
easier brought down, and less fleet on their legs
when winged. When cornered by the dog, they
sometimes utter a shrill squeak. They are more
apt to crouch at the approach of danger than the
old birds, and when scattered by the sportsman
make for the nearest shelter, where they keep
silent for a time, but soon show their desire to
re-assemble by calling and answering each other
from different parts of the covert. Their signal
notes on these occasions are soft, plaintive and
peculiarly expressive of anxiety. The old birds
fly further and deeper into the woods, preserve a
wary silence for many moments together, and
are only to be traced to their hiding places by
the keen nose of your four-footed advuvant.

Inasmuch as we observe the partridge invari-
ably taking to cover, when flushed by sportsmen
or pursued by birds of prey, and, in fact, passing
most of its time near its edge, we might at first
glance imagine that the same instinct would lead
it to select its place of repose in the deep shade
of the thicket. Such, however, is not the case.
We know that it roosts in the open fields, but
never in the same enclosure in which it feeds,
unless it be of unusual extent.

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 159

After having filled their crops, towards eve-
ning they make a single flight from the stubbles
to the spot selected for the roost, on which they
alight in a body, nestle close, and stir not again
until dawn. Although frequently found in the
narrow strips of grass which the mowers leave
in a line with the fence, they are careful to avoid
roosting near these, and to choose, as near as
possible, the very centre of the field. These facts
are strongly illustrative of the self-preservative
instinct, sharpened into intelligence by the diffe-
rent dangers, to which, sleeping or waking, the
bird is continually exposed. To escape from
man and other enemies who pursue them by
day, they pitch hurriedly into bush or thicket ;
but when the stealthy prowlers of the wood are
abroad, the covey, sitting on an elevated spot
in the middle of the field, in a circle of less than
twelve inches in diameter, sleep comparatively
secure under the wing of night.

But there is yet another fact connected with
the roost, which challenges our attention. Many
of the feathered tribes bury their heads in their
plumage on the approach of evening. Even the
restless sea-bird, which, it has been said, never
sleeps, has been seen riding the wild waves with
its head under its wing. But the partridge after

ICO KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

all its ingenious care to conceal its resting place
from nocturnal foes, manifests no such sense of
security. The roost is ranged with strict refe-
rence to the dangers which, in some degree,
menace it still. It is known that the head of
each bird is turned outwards, forming, so to
speak, a continuous ring of posts, while the tails
touch, so that each living segment of that little
circular camp of innocents, is ready to start and
shift for itself, at the least thrill of alarm.

There is thought to be an appreciable diffe-
rence in the sizes of the male and female par-
tridges. Occasionally an old cock bird is killed
whose weight is worthy of registry. In some
parts of upper Pennsylvania where the birds are
little disturbed, we have found both of unusual
size. During the shooting season the yearling
broods are readily known by their inferiority in
this respect, and young birds are always to be
distinguished from old ones by their smooth,
tender, light-colored legs. The legs of the old
birds are black and covered with scales. The
partridge is found in almost every section of the
Union, but it is principally in the Eastern and
Middle States, and in some sections of Maryland
and Virginia, that it is considered game and sys-
tematically hunted with dogs.

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING.

Many of our senior readers will, doubtless,
remember the time, when the prospect of a day's
partridge shooting was sweeter to their youthful
fancies, than the mellifluous sound of the Ionian
dialect, a high standard class circular, or even a
July vacation. Others, again, like the editor,
will confess that their ardor in this species of
sport was never so intense, as when hunting
woodcocks in their marshy solitudes — starting
before the peep of day to set decoys for the
wild duck, or with Ponto and Dash, after
breakfast, to beat up the haunts of the wild
and wandering snipe. It was only during the
last season, while shooting over the wooded
hills near Green Lane, in the upper part of
Montgomery, that we were conscious of a
slight thrill of jealousy, when our companion
unexpectedly killed, towards the close of day,
a brace of fine snipe on a wet stubble-field.
We did not dream at the moment, of encoun-
tering our arch favorite on the very summit
of a bleak ridge, on the twenty-ninth day of
November; arid as the shooter complacently
smoothed down the plumage of the birds, and
carefully dropped them in the innermost recess
of his shooting coat, the action went to our
heart, Truth to tell, it cost us a struggle to

162 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

subdue the sinful feeling, it was so very like
coquetting with our first love. We had no
previous reason to be malcontent, having shot
over many points that day at partridge and
ruffed grouse ; nevertheless, had tve fallen in
with that brace of snipe as the sun went down,
we should have restored the gun to its case
with a tranquil mind; we should have ridden
home by the light of the moon, and blessed
our auspicious stars.

But, be it remembered at the outset, that we
profess no desire to disparage the merits of this
delectable sport, in which, una voce, most shooters
glory. It has irresistible charms for young and
old, and as long as King Nimrod — we had nearly
said Ramrod — has a place in the hearts of men —
as long as Ponto and Dash can distinguish a
stubble-field from a stable-yard — so long will

" The pointer range, and the sportsman beat;"

so long will it be considered as the beau ideal of
field shooting. The partridge has been so long
and so closely identified with scenes of rural
study, and rural industry, and has been so
minutely described, that its habits would seem
to be perfectly familiar to the public. Sports-
men differ, however, as to several points in the
history of its economy, and, according to Mr.

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 163

Herbert, it will be long before even the question
of its true ornithological title is settled. "The
difficulty," says that gentleman, "lies not so
much in the delicacy of the subject itself, as in
the utter want of sporting authority in America
competent to pronounce a decree." With due
deference to Mr. Herbert, we would remark that
it is not at all likely that he, himself, will be
soon called to the task, since with all his research
and experience in the field, he has already made
a curious blunder of pronouncing the American
partridge, a quail, to which it really bears little
analogy, as our townsman, Dr. E. J. Lewis, of
Philadelphia, in his Hints to Sportsmen, page
forty-seven, has conclusively shown. This error
is more remarkable, inasmuch as however fan-
ciful Forrester may be in his description of the
modus operandi of killing a brace of wild ducks,
right and left, from behind a pair of fast trotting
nags going at speed, he is generally correct in
his appreciation of the habits of the bird which
he professes to portray. One of the mooted
points in the history of the partridge, is the
number of broods which each pair of old birds
produce in a season ; another relates to what
has been rather unadvisably called the mys-
terious faculty of withholding its scent, when

164 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

hiding away from the dogs. The first, although
of some little interest to the naturalist, is of still
less to the sportsman, except, indeed, when a
scarcity of game has been experienced, as in
the last season, — during which the gunsmiths
of Philadelphia sold less small shot than they
have done for years, — and as furnishing a topic
for learned discussion on each annual campaign,
after his triumphant return from the woods and
stubbles. The other more nearly concerns the
shooter and his abettors, especially the intel-
lectual nose of Ponto, and is more curious in its
phrases, even when stript of the mystical air
with which some writers of the day would invest
it. In regard to the first point, we would ob-
serve, that although the partridge displays more
art in the process of nidification than the wood-
cock, yet from the comparatively late period of
her incubation, and from obvious causes con-
nected with agricultural pursuits, the nest of
the former is much more frequently found than
that of the latter bird. They are also more
jealous of intrusion, and more apt to abandon
the nest when disturbed. The mere flushing
her in this situation, is often resented by an
entire and immediate desertion of the spot,
which, for weeks previous, perhaps, had been

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 165

the object of her especial solicitude. Should
the eggs be handled, it is very rare indeed that
the bird is again seen on the nest. It would
almost seem, that in the mysteries of nature's
ordering, the process of incubation of this fami-
liar bird must be carried on in entire silence
and solitude ; as if the little temple of woven grass
and leaves, not to speak profanely, were a very
sanctum sanctorum, not to be desecrated by
other eyes than those of its priestess. When,
however, it is once abandoned, the bird does not
immediately proceed to lay again, as might, at
first glance, be supposed. An interval of some
days arid even weeks may elapse, during which
she may be daily seen sitting listlessly on a
fence-rail for many moments at a time, while
other more fortunate mothers are already lead-
ing about their callow broods. The male closely
attends his mate, and would seem, by his silence
and drooping attitude, to share in her dejection
of spirits. At length, however, another place
of concealment is sought for, and another nest
made; should the same fate attend this which
befell the first, \ve have reason to believe that,
after a second interval, greater or less, the bird
will lay again, and her brood, perhaps not more
than one-third grown, will be found by the
11

166 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

sportsman as late as the middle of October, or
even in November. In fact, so many accidental
irregularities occur in the period of incubation,
that the farmer will often tell you, that he has
seen broods of unfledged birds in his first crop
of grass, in his oats, in his wheat, in his corn
and, last of all, in his buckwheat. We were
long inclined to the popular belief, that as a
law of her instinct, the partridge reared two
broods in a season, but later observations have
inclined us to correct our opinion. These
inquiries were principally made in a section of
the country where we have resided for years,
and shot over for many successive seasons, a sec-
tion where partridges are comparatively scarce,
and which we believe, to be better suited for the
purposes of investigation, than a region where
they are unusually abundant. In the latter
locality, so many late broods, consequent upon
the irregularities we have already noticed, will
always be met with in the shooting season,
that distinct broods will be confounded together
by sportsmen as the progeny of one pair of old
birds, especially when from accident or design,
one or more of these coveys of young birds have
been deprived of the fostering care of a parent.
In various sections of the Middle States, especi-

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 167

ally in the valleys of Pennsylvania, it is not a
very rare occurrence for the dogs to point two
and even three coveys of different sizes in the
same field, and the shooter, observing, perhaps,
but one pair of old birds rise in this promiscu-
ous progeny, at once jumps at his conclusion of
two broods in a season. It is not thus, however,
that assertions are to be advanced and facts
established in the history of a bird so jealous of
its more occult habits and so impatient of con-
finement as the partridge. Still the difficulty
of obtaining an amount of information which
may be relied on, and of keeping a continuous
watch upon several pair of old birds, even in a
part of the country where the haunts of every
covey, for miles around, are perfectly well
known, almost precludes the possibility of decid-
ing the question. On the whole, we are inclined
to think that the partridge, like the woodcock,
as a law of her nature, rears but one brood in
a year.

The cock bird relieves the hen at least once
during the day, and nestles close to her at night.
Indeed, he seldom wanders far from the nest,
and from the period of pairing until the young
birds are able to fly, is as attentive to his family
duties as the turtle-dove or the domstic pigeon.

168 . KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

What is asserted of the English partridge, is
doubtless true of our own, that when once paired
they rarely separate. Jt is well known that the
partridge may be reared in the barn-yard. In
the fall of eighteen hundred and fifty, we saw
one of a brood which had been brought up in
this manner by a bantam hen. It was then full
grown and quietly feeding with the chickens.
The experiment has also been reversed, by
placing the eggs of the common hen under the
partridge. In this case the result was more
curious, as the brood of chickens thus produced
had all the wild habits of young partridges. In
commenting upon this change, Wilson, the
father of American ornithology, reasonably ob-
serves that "there is scarcely a doubt that the
domestic fowl might be very soon brought back
to its original savage state, and thereby supply
another additional subject for the amusement of
the sportsman. But," he adds, " the experi- *
ment, in order to secure its success, must be
made in a quarter of the country less exposed
than ours to the ravages of guns, traps, dogs,
and the deep snows of winter, that the new
tribe might have full time to become completely
naturalized, and well fixed in their native
habits." This reminds us of an adventure of a

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 169

friend of ours, who, with a companion, had
what was termed rare sport, in hunting a brood
of guinea fowls, which had been hatched and
gone wild in the woods of New Jersey. There
was an abundance of brush, and the birds laid
well after their first fright, and were all killed
over points.*

In some parts of the old world where game
are strictly preserved, the disposition of the do-
mestic fowl to relapse into a wild state has often
been noticed. An anecdote of the kind was
related to us several years ago by the son of a
deceased oberjagermeister of the Duke of Hesse
D'Armstadt. A common hen had hatched out
a brood of twenty chicks in a remote part of the
park, and when discovered, both the mother
and her progeny, which were nearly full grown,

* We once shot for several seasons with a pet pointer, who would
stand any bird to which his attention was particularly directed,
from a small sand-piper to a tame turkey. It was very apparent,
however, from the comic look which his countenance assumed, that
Toby comprehended the matter, entering into the spirit of the
frolic merely in obedience to his master's whims, and that in his
unrestrained, sober moods, he considered such foolery as entirely
beneath the line of his business. To cats, indeed, he had an
undisguised aversion, and would hunt them through the stable-
yard, or stand them staunchly in the field. Nothing appeared to
rejoice his heart more, than to be in at the death of a vagrant cat
detected in a poaching expedition, and if allowed to take a morsel
of her hair, he asked nothing further of fate.

170 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

were as wild as pheasants. They were all shot
over pointers by the huntsman, with the excep-
tion of two or three killed on the trees. It is to
be supposed, however, that wild chicken shoot-
ing would prove no better sport than knocking
over pinnated grouse on the prairies, which,
according to report, is but tame work, and
although the complete domestication of the par-
tridge would be a feather in the cap of the
naturalist, yet upon due consideration, the
sportsman will do well to leave the barn-fowl
in quiet possession of roost and dunghill.

Besides the shooter who annually goes out
to brace mind and body in this exciting sport,
the little partridge has many orthodox enemies,
so to speak. Piratical hawks are constantly
cruising the air round its haunts ; the fox, the
raccoon and the snake, each has its snatch at
the broods ; while the farmer's boy, with his
Birmingham barrel and cock-tailed cur, or his
deadly figure-four, betraying whole coveys, at a
fall, to his remorseless clutch, makes war upon
them early and late. Even grimalkin, when
tired of mousing in the barn or dining off of
scraps, will slyly creep away to the field or
thicket, to set up her failing appetite on poached
game. For everv arrow head on its dotted

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 171

breast the partridge has its foe, to say nothing
of such a winter as that preceding the last.
Living in the country, it gives us pleasure to
say, that every year we do something in the
way of lessening its enemies, by shooting, trap-
ping, or breaking up the nests of hawks, hunt-
ing the fox and the coon, smashing the traps,
bamboozling the boy, and conspiring against
the cock-tailed cur. As to grimalkin, woe unto
her, should we once catch a glimpse of her
furred skin skulking in the hedge, or crouching
in the grass from the dogs. Not all the war-
locks in weird-land — not all the carlins which
chased Tarn O'Shanter, could avert her doom
for a single instant. Bleed she must, be she
brindle, tortoise shell, black, white, yellow, or
gray, and as wise in her moods as Whittington's
or that of my lord Marquis of Carrabas.

" Swift from the tube the leaden vengeance flies,
And Ponto laughs as poaching pussy dies."

There is scarcely a season passes but we are
called upon to add another tail or two to the
talley. Last year we shot a torn among the
cedars on Stone Hill, grouse hunting, no doubt,
and on returning home were forced to inflict
the penalty of the law upon another, a splendid
fellow, the very minion of a nursery hearth-rug,

172 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

the miniature Bengal tiger of an old fashioned
fire-fender ; — but such is the perversity of feline
nature, — twice detected in the act of stealing
young Shanghai chickens from the coops. On
another occasion, while shooting near Dennis-
ville, New Jersey, the dog pointed what we at
first supposed, from his look and attitude, to be a
hare. In an instant, however, moving on his
length, he stood stiffly. Getting sight of Miss
Puss stealing away through the rails of the
fence, we discharged one barrel at her and the
other at one of her intended victims as they
rose, and we are happy to be able to state, that
even-handed justice gave a tolerably fair ac-
count of both. The birds were dusting and
pruning their plumage in the bushy point of a
wood ; puss was evidently watching their mo-
tions, premeditating a glorious pounce, when
Ponto, winding the game, pointed her and her
unconscious prey at the same moment. The
old fellow was not at all confused by the two
scents, and showed his satisfaction at the result
by looking up in his master's face with eager
eyes, begging for a single shake. When gravely
reminded that this was decidedly out of charac-
ter, he solaced himself by wagging his wiry tail^
while his countenance wore that knowing, imp-

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 1?3

ish look, which a hard-faced urchin might be
supposed to assume, when rubbing his hands
in high glee at some unexpected piece of fun.

The fox will trail a running covey, just as a
wolf follows "a gang of turkies," by the scent.
A medical gentleman was reading under a large
shell-bark tree, the lower branches of which
formed a complete circle of shade, when he
observed a fox coursing like a dog in the same
field. After running with his nose down for
some moments, he suddenly sprang into the
hollow of a stump, out of which at the same
instant flew a covey of full grown partridges.
Reynard, however, secured one with which he
beat a retreat to a rocky hill in the vicinity.
This occurred in the month of September at
mid-day, and considerably astonished the doc-
tor.

So many useful instructions have been else-
where given to the young shooter, that we have
little to say on this score, except to beg him to
remember, that he has no more right to feel
flurried in the field, than in the drawing-room.
" A gentleman," says Lord Chesterfield, or
somebody else, " may be in haste, but he never
should be in a hurry." The same rule is strictly
applicable to sporting, and the bungler who

174 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

interferes with the shots that fall to his com-
panion, or bangs both barrels not at selected
birds, nor in reality at the covey, but rather at
the whir of their short wings as they rise before
the dogs, is equally unfortunate with the man
who publicly commits some egregious breach of
the formula of common politeness. If, however,
as is often the case, the shooter finds himself
unable to control his nervousness at the critical
moment when the dogs are on a point, we advise
him to hunt a season or two with an experienced
sportsman, when, by observing his motions,
and listening to his directions in the field, he
will gradually get the better of his own undue
excitement, and kill his birds in style. We
have known several individuals of excitable
temperaments, who have been cured in this
way, and now shoot right and left quite as well
as their ci-devant tutors. A vast deal of the
interest which attaches itself to partridge shoot-
ing, depends upon the manner in which it is
pursued, and there is no sport which admits of
more system in its practice. If your dogs are
excellent, and your companion one whose tem-
per and habits in the field chime well with your
own, you will say, perhaps, that it is the most
delightful of sports. Like other varieties of

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 175

shooting, it induces cheerfulness — throws care
to the winds — strengthens the body, and by
giving fresh tone to the mind when overtasked
by business, sends the sportsman back to his
office, or counting-room, with a new lease of
existence. It is the greatest possible service to
thousands of persons engaged in the arduous
pursuit of professions, which require intense
abstraction, and who would inevitably break down
if deprived of their usual relaxations in the
shooting seasons. " Black care," says the Latin
poet, "sits behind the flying horseman;" but
who ever heard of care striding over the fields
and through the woods with the sportsman ! As
the poet has his own world, within the mysterious
precincts of wliich the rest of mankind are not
privileged to enter, so the sportsman has his
separate existence which no one is permitted to
share, save Ponto, without whom, indeed we
could do nothing, and who, we are proud to say,
belongs to the order. Now dullards, wiseacres
and clodpates, stand afar off and scoff both at
the poet and the sportsman. " Sblood," as Hamlet
says, "there is something in this more than
natural, if philosophy could find it out."

We should like, however, in the neatest way
possible, — being very studious to avoid giving

176 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

offence, — to remind the Rev. William Henry
Herbert and his followers — we ask Forrester's
pardon if we have inadvertently confounded him
with the sporting clergy — to remind these gen-
tlemen, we repeat, that it is not exactly in char-
acter to prate too much at this season about
"western breezes" — " torrent rays of mellow,
liquid lustre" — " gay woodlands" — "wreaths of
purple light," &c., — because, we would gently
insinuate, that it is by no means the dreamy
skies and scenic glories of an American autumn,
which makes it so dear to the partridge shooter,
with "hie-away!" and " to-ho !" on his tongue.
He has little leisure, we opine, to court a
humorous sadness in the sunlight of its golden
noons, while his dogs are feathering actively
before him, and still less to dwell with rapturous
melancholy on the gorgeous dyes of the forest,
while marking down the scattered birds in a
briar bush, or watching them skim away in a
sylvan alley. How, we would in all courtesy
ask, how can he stop to seek food for thought in
the rustle of a sere maize-leaf, when Ponto is on
a trail in the furrow, or how, in the name of Pan
and all the wood-nymphs, can he hearken to the
whistling of the November blast, when the seduc-
tive call of " Bob White," has graver charms for

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 1?7

his ears, than the sweet south's sighing over-
tures, or all old autumn's jEolian music.

" Full of the expected sport my heart beats high,
As with impatient steps I haste to reach
The stubbles, where the scattered grain affords
A sweet repast to the yet heedless game.
Near yonder hedge-row where high grass and ferns
The secret hollow shade, my pointers stand,
How beautiful they look ! with outstretched tails,
With heads immovable and eyes fast fixed,
One fore leg raised and bent, the other firm,
Advancing forward, presses on the ground."

This is the language of an enthusiastic sports-
man, talking in blank verse, and, with the ex-
ception of the last line, is as it should be. He
says not a word, you perceive, about the beau-
ties of the season ; all is merged in the sporting
picture before him. He is an Englishman, it is
true, poor fellow, and the autumns of his country
are rather brown affairs ; but the fact is, the rise
and fall of empires is nought to him, at that
precious moment when his " pointers stand ;"
and it is this vivid filling up of the scene, this
direct and glorious presentation of itself, to the
utter exclusion of all other objects, together with
a lurking love for gunpowder, which places the
modern Nimrod in a charmed circle, and gives
its fascination to the sport. " I low beautiful
they look !" By the way, an excellent rule for

178 KRIBER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

the nervous man is to follow the example just
quoted, and take a close look at the demeanor of
his dogs, before he proceeds to flush the game.
By doing this he will not only receive an edify-
ing hint to restrain his own ardor at the right
moment, and consequently learn to shoot better,
but also gain an insight into the hearts of his
canine friends which will be worth remembering.
Ponto is not a mere sporting implement, like the
gun, gentle reader; he participates in all the
hopes, the fears, the joys of the day, which, how-
ever, only stimulates him in the pursuit of game,
and makes him staunch and true to his point.
He inherits his professional qualities and dis-
plays them in the field at a very early age. We
now rejoice in a stock of pointers, the puppies
of which hunt, stand and back before they are
six months old, requiring, in fact, little training
except to be taught to keep steady at the report
of the gun, and we have seen a setter which had
not attained his majority by several months, to
astonish a number of veteran sportsmen by the
admirable manner in which he found and stood
snipe. Whether the dog returns wholly to dust
or no, it cannot be denied that he has a- soul for
sport. The question of his immortality has been
ably discussed in a late number of the Edin-

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 179

burgh Review ; on this point we have nothing
to say here, except to remark en passant, that it
is a far pleasanter thing for us to spend two or
three weeks of a season, in close companionship
with a high-bred, intelligent, joyous-hearted ani-
mal, than to be shut up for the same time with
an austere, pedantic theologian, even though he
be a biped of the true Pharasaical leaven, with his
bond of immortality signed and sealed in his
pocket. But it is high time we had the reader
up and out.

In the first place, eight or ten hours of unbro-
ken rest on the night previous is very desirable
especially if you are in a section of the country
where game abound, and are disposed to keep
up your work. We used to be careless on this
point in "our salad days;" but now, although
we do not mind hunting from dawn until dusk,
we invariably retire betimes. In the w^ords of
the sporting song,

" It will not do .again to say,

Tho' hearts be still as light,
That we have hunted all the day,

And revelled all the night."

The dogs, too, must be carefully attended to.
Be sure that they get a good meat supper and
are securely lodged on clean litter, with a bucket

ISO KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

of fresh water at their command. Never take a
dog into your room to mar your rest by shifting
his camp from corner to corner, or beating old
Nick's tattoo, with his tail under the bed. He is a
thousand times better off in the barn or the
stable, where, if you take a look at his quarters
before you retire, you will find him all at home,
buried up to the nose, perhaps, in rye straw.
If, however, he is an especial favorite, and you
have serious doubts as to the honesty of the
neighborhood — for "train up a dog, and away he
goes," is a ludicrous saying which many a sports-
man has rued — in that case if you bring him into
your sleeping room to make all sure, give him a
bed raised a foot or more above the floor, that he
may lie out of the draught of cold air, to which,
reckless of exposure as he is in the field, he is as
susceptible in cuUculo as an invalid. If you are
not careful in this respect, you will have him
sailing about the room, sounding every inch of
harbor, like a coast surveyor, and, perhaps, leap-
ing on the bed ; or wanting water in the course
of the night, he will bring down the wash-stand
and its appurtenances about his ears, with a
grand crash, — or pull down your shooting
clothes, and hauling them out of the current of
air, make a dog-mat out of them until morning.

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 181

We once knew a valuable pointer belonging to
a friend, to open the door of the chamber in
which he was lodged with his master, and wan-
dering into the entry, pitch over a part of the
staircase unguarded by bannisters, and lay him-
self up for the season. Moreover, introducing
dogs into the sleeping apartments of their mas-
ters learns them indolent habits. What will the
reader think of a sportsman's suddenly missing
his dog at the last moment, with the steamboat
in sight from the pier — a dozen unpleasant sus-
picions crowding on his mind— the bar-tender,
boots and the ostler all actively engaged on the
scout, and when the rascal turned up at the
eleventh hour, he was actually discovered by the
chambermaid, lovingly locked in the arms of
Somnus in a lodger's bed. Truly, luxury which
ruined the Roman empire, would soon make
Sybarites of Ponto and Dash, as it has of their
cousins, the King Charles and the Blenheim.
Clean rye straw in a warm stall is good enough
for the villains, in the frostiest night that ever
made Dapple cough as she chewed the cud, or
honest Dobbin kick at the stable door. They
will come out of it in the morning top side up,
with shining noses and sinews new strung for a
a hard day's hunt.
12 *

182 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

The next morning, breakfast being over, and
all things in readiness for an early start, if you
have any distance to ride to the grounds which
you design to shoot over, by all means take in
the dogs. Apart from the looks of the thing,
they are liable to be lost on the road in a strange
neighborhood, and to be worried by country
curs. It is the practice of a sportsman early to
accustom his brace of dogs to their places under
his feet in a wagon, where they will soon learn
to lie still and mute, without discommoding each
other or their masters. A dog thus treated
enjoys a ride to and from the grounds quite as
much as the shooter, and most assuredly equally
deserves it. Several instances have come under
our notice, of valuable dogs which have been
fagged to death by the carelessness or brutality
of their owners, in forcing them to run for many
miles in warm weather after a hard hunt. Such
heartlessness cannot be too severely condemned,
and wre will venture to say that the persons who
were guilty of it, never felt a single spark of the
generous feeling inherent in the breast of a
sportsman. It should be a standing rule with
every shooter who takes a dog into the field, that
when I ride my dogs ride also. We have had
occasion to notice in our sporting tours, a selfish

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 183

indifference to the comforts of their dogs in some
men, otherwise keen sportsmen, and a cockney-
ish affectation of noli me tangere, equivalent to
get out, you inferior brute — in others. The first
are those, called in the vulgar parlance pot-
hunters, who, after Ponto has helped to fill the
bag, and shown no sign of flagging while there
was light left to shoot over him, unceremoniously

d n the dog and deny him a passage

though ten weary miles may intervene. The
second are the dandy cockneys ; " the softly
sprighted men," who are so terribly afraid of
fleas that they would on no account sit in the
same vehicle with a dog, and who ask, in a voice
like the ring of a cracked glass: "How does
your fallow greyhound, sir ?" Of course it never
enters the mind of either of these worthy gentle-
men, that the dog, whom they neglect and de-
spise, is the nobler animal of the two, and that
they have in reality, little to offer against his
fidelity and devotion, except the form made after
the Creator's image. The intellect of the one
master is too obtuse, and that of the other too
much infused with self-conceit, to dream of such
a comparison. Nevertheless, they might well
ask themselves, as a child did of a star : "Is it
truer

184 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

It behooves the sportsman to make sure that
no one but the pilot and game-bearer, — who, by
the way, should never be permitted to take a gun
with him to the field, under any pretence what-
ever— insinuates himself into the party. If it
originally consists of four, it must of course be
divided, as two men are enough to hunt in com-
pany over any cultivated country. It was our
fortune once, while shooting in an adjoining
state, to be joined by a party of country gentle-
men, to the number of six or seven, who, heaven
reward their kindness, though it certainly was
misplaced — had turned out in sporting trim to
honor our advent. Besides Czar and Dash, we
received a reinforcement of two fox-hounds, one
terrier, one shock-dog, four nondescript curs and
one poodle — a very respectable pack, each and
all in good condifion, and eager, like their mas-
ters, to take the field. The pointer snuffed
around this motley crowd with high-bred scorn,
and the setter, being younger, did not attempt to
conceal his chagrin, but bristled his back and
showed his white teeth at each of his strange
field mates in turn. However, there was nothing
else for it, and out we went to the stubbles at
seven in the morning, the curs, of course, taking
the lead. A covey of birds were speedily found

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 185

and scattered, each man doing his best to set on
his brute in chase, when the hounds struck a
trail, and off they went, yelping to the hills, fol-
lowed by the terrier and the poodle, and, last of
all by their masters. The curs stuck closer, and
it speedily appeared that, living upon farms
adjoining each other, they were no strangers to
those little jealousies and petty heart-burnings,
which, to say the truth, are so common among
country folks of a certain class.

After considerable preliminary snarling and
wrangling, by a little judicious management the
feuds blazed out over the body of an innocent
opossum, which one of them had dragged out of
his hole, and to it, might and main, they went,
all except the shock-dog, who, belying his name,
stood barking, aloof. A dog fight in the country
when the combatants happen to be large, strong
animals, as was the case in this instance, is an
obstinately contested affair; in attempting to
separate the belligerents, their masters became
infected with the same pugnacious spirit; down
went guns and into the melee went the country
gentlemen to our great delight, each nourishing
a pair of fists a la Hyer; when, noticing the opos-
sum stealing quietly off, (his old trick,) we as
quietly followed his sage example, and making for

186 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

the nearest road, jumped into a farmer's wagon,
which bore us and our four-footed friends some
five miles off from the scene of the fray, where
we found birds and had fair sport.

Having now entered the stubbles, observe the

different modes in which the dogs proceed to

traverse the ground. The morning is calm, clear

and bracing. The young dog at once dashes

out into the centre of the field, quartering his

ground as he goes, and feathering in fine style

with the hoar frost flying in his track, while the

pointer, as usual, directs his course towards the

corners, near which experience has taught him

the birds are often found. He is not mistaken,

for see close to that bunch of broom-corn, near

the south angle of the fence, he stands "fast

fixed," while the setter, beaten again in the first

point in despite of his dash, backs steadily from

the spot on which he had already detected some

faint effluvia of the feeding game. The shooters

come up at quick step, yet cautiously, each in

the attitude of a practised sportsman ; the covey

is flushed, each deliberately singles out and

knocks down his birds ; the dogs are sent to

retrieve either by the command, " seek, dead

bird," or by a simple wave of the hand; the

game is retrieved ; the guns re-loaded, and the

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 187

parties proceed to follow the remainder of the
covey, which have flown in the direction of
the adjacent woods. Just upon its edge the
axe has been recently at work, and several
trees, still covered with their faded foliage, lie
a little to the right of the fence in a line
with the flight of the birds. In this cover the
covey has doubtless hidden, and with good
management a half dozen shots may be obtained
on the spot. " Heed ! heed! brave dogs !" See,
Dash has come upon a bird which has pitched
short of the cover under the fence, and he stops
short and gives the never-failing sign, while old
Czar, the winner of first blood, backs staunch as
stone. Now if your eyes be good, you may see
that bird lying close to the rail-post, its body
drawn up into the smallest compass and per-
fectly motionless. Its white chin has betrayed
it, and you can now distinguish its bright eyes
fixed timidly upon you. It has probably struck
the ground and ran a yard or two to its hiding
place, or the dogs might have passed it by, so
tightly is the plumage compressed, and the
wings shut down over the odoriferous glands,
by muscular actions induced by the influence
of fear. Observe how close the setter is to the
bird ; now just as a man holds his breath when

188 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

his pursuers are near, the partridge tightens its
skin so as to occupy the smallest possible space,
and in so doing, if it lies exactly on the spot on
which its feet first struck, it will probably puz-
zle the dogs, who can detect no effluvia in the
air or upon the earth for obvious reasons. You
may easily imagine how diiferent is the case
when the birds have left a trail, or are feeding
in a body, with the scent steaming freely from
their feathers. The whole mystery lies in a
nutshell ; — up whirs the bird from under your
feet — missed clean, by Jove ! — but the second
barrel riddles him, and he lies still short of the
fallen timber and close to the fence. An old
cock that, for a wager ; — but charge your piece,
and let us at them, for an old snipe shooter,
above all things, detests burning daylight.
Mark how cautiously the dogs approach the
cover ; now Dash is pointing the dead bird :
"fetch! so! good dog!" — you that way and I
this.

Both dogs point simultaneously on either side
of the trees; now, keep cool, and remember,
that, as you are shooting a sixteen guage gun
which throws her charge very compactly for
some distance, you must give your birds a fair
start and then kill them clean.

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 189

"Whir! whir!"

"Bang! bang!"

Both birds down ; both dogs steady as statues !
Now charge the empty barrel, and if a bird
should rise before you have capped, let it go.
You remember the pair of barrels which we
saw at Krider's last spring, the left hand one
rent at the middle, just where the head of the
rod reached, when the hasty gentleman fired at
the snipe.

"Ready?"

" All ready."

" Now kick the boughs on your side."

"Whir! whir! whir! whir-!"

"Bang! bang! bang! bang!"

There goes another — and another, shooting
through the trees ; they are the last, for see the
dogs are off their points; those birds were killed
in a style which reflects credit on the art ; six
down ; we will charge, retrieve the dead birds,
and push on to a second stubble-field.

You observe how long Dash was in finding
this bird, although I knew the very spot where
it fell : he passed and re-passed within a few
feet of it several times before he discovered it ;
death having suddenly suspended all the vital
phenomena, the dog was in a similar position to

190 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

the dead game, as if he was hunting for a live
bird, which, in the act of hiding away, had par-
tially or wholly withheld its scent. Now let us
away to the next field, for one half of the life of
sporting is in its motion. A hard hunter is most
invariably a fair shot; but a fair shot is not
always a hard hunter.

Hie on, good dogs. — But, mark yonder fea-
thered pirate perched near the top of the tall
tree, on the edge of the wheat stubble. He is
out after game, too, for see, he has a bird in his
talons, and feeling perfectly secure, he is pluck-
ing it where he sits. Is there no way of pun-
ishing that fellow, and of putting a final period
to his depredations? Yes, by Jove, there is.
Here comes the farmer down the lane to water
his horses.

" Good morning, Adam. Do you see yonder
hen-harrier?"

" Ay, I sees the thief."

" Will your horses stand fire ?"

" Ay, here's old bay Charles — he's twenty-six
next grass — be danged if he doesn't stand a dis-
ruption of 'Suvius."

" Well then, we'll put an end to that fellow's
forays on your poultry -yard. Jump on Charles,
while I take down the bars ; now guide him so

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 191

as to pass within a few rods of the tree. I will
walk on your off side — the hawk will not move ;
he sees only one thing at a time, and he knows
there is no harm in the old horse. My friend
will keep the dogs with him here at the fence,
and if you can manage to strike up a careless
whistle, Adam, so much the better."

"Nay, nay," said the old man in a cracked
voice. " Fse done whistling this many a day
since my old dame died ; but, an' you like, I'll

sing.

"No, no, my good friend," I whispered as we
approached the tree, "that would spoil all."
The hawk still continued to feed, although I
was satisfied that he saw the horse plainly
enough ; once or twice he looked down upon us
as if in some distrust; but the farmer turned
the horse's head a little off from the tree, and
the bird quietly resumed its meal. We were
now close to the trunk ; Adam checked the
horse, and raising the gun, which I had previ-
ously kept out of sight as much as possible, I
took a quick aim and fired. The hawk dropped
but hung to its perch with one foot, while the
other still retained its prey.

" Hurrah !" exclaimed the old man, "give him
the other barrel," and down the plunderer came

192 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

at the report, tumbling from bough to bough to
our feet, where he lay on his back displaying
his spotted belly, barred tail, and sharp talons,
with the remains of a hen partridge in his grip.
Adam jumped off his horse and examined him
with curious attention.

" Be danged, Mister," said he, pointing to the
bird's neck which was partially bare, " but his
head has been in one of my steel traps ; the
teeth caught in the bait and saved him that
time ; my boys found the trap sprung and the
feathers lying near, and right glad they'll be
to see the thief nailed to the side of the barn."

"Ay." said I, "we dare say, but Mr. T. and
I must be off;" and bidding the old man good
morning, we started for a neighboring copse, in
which we suspected the covey had flown, after
having been surprised and scattered by the
hawk. However, we hunted it through and
through without obtaining a single point, and
after trying an old stubble thickly overgrown
with Indian grass, were about to push on in
search of another covey, when, as we approached
a hollow in which heaps of brush had accumu-
lated, the old dog drew suddenly up with Dash
close in his rear, and, "here they are," said T.,
measuring the distance from the tree on which

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 193

the hawk was shot, with his eye. There they
were, sure enough, having crept to the very
bottom of the brush-pile through the dead twigs
and branches. We had nine successive shots
before the dogs stirred, when T. called them off,
declaring that he would not shoot at another
bird. In fact, you could hear them squeak and
scratch their way out at every kick which we
gave the pile — when, in the nick of time, down
came a surly countryman, with a hound-cur and
a friend at his heels, and ordered us off. The
man was at first decidedly wolfish, and half in-
clined to create a row, but the suavity of T. and
the inimitable manner in which he weathered
upon him as soon as he found out his name,
claiming relationship — by Adam's side, I sup-
pose— and introducing his liquor-flask into the
discussion in his fine, off-hand way, put the man
in decent humor at last. The other fellow, how-
ever, fought shy. He was a shrewd, lantern-
jawed, cat-eyed, close-fisted clodhopper; setting
his cunning avaricious orbs on T.'s face, for a
time he listened with an occasional smirk, to his
rigmarole, whittling a stick the while, and turn-
ing up his nose at the dogs. I was inclined to
let him alone, thinking that he was too much for
me, when, after moistening his throat with such

194 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

whiskey as he had never tasted before in
a dream, he opened his oracular jaws and
spake :

" Do you ever shoot gray snipe ?" said he.

"Why, -yes, sometimes in the spring of the
year when there is nothing else to hunt, you
know," answered T., while I silently pricked up
my ears.

"Waal," said the other, "I didn't know;
there's heaps on 'em on my place."

" Indeed," answered T., " try another dash of
that whiskey — snipe are strange birds ; here to-
day and off to-morrow. Your land lies well,
Mr. Sluicedam."

" I s'pose, squire," said Mr. Sluicedam's cute
friend, screwing up his eyes and recovering his
breath after a long drink, " when you goes out
arter partridges, you goes out arter partridges,
and when you goes out arter snipe, you goes out
arter snipe — eigh?"

" Something in that way, I confess," answered
T. " The fact is, you see, Mr Sluicedam, I
don't overlike the water myself, and my friend
there had as soon take a kick from a weaned colt
as get his feet wet. We don't get out often, but
when you and your friend happen to be in the
city, I hope you will give us a call ;" and taking

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 195

his boot maker's card from his pocket he presented
it with his usual grace. We then prepared to
move on, when, in spite of a peculiar glance from
T.'s eye, I determined to put the question :

" Is that your land which adjoins Mr. Sluice-
dam's?" said I carelessly.

»/

"Why, no," said he, with a grin, "it ain't,
by a long shot. It wouldn't be no manner of
use to tell you where my place be, you know,
since you both hate water so. Good mornin'
gentlemen."

" Hang the fellow !" I exclaimed.

"N'importe" said T., "I have his outlines;
here, hold my gun for a moment, I'll fill them
up while the impression is fresh." Taking pen-
cil and paper from his pocket, he set down on a
stump, and with a few bold strokes and scientific
dashes, executed so felicitous a caricature of
the countryman, that I could not but smile at
the likeness. " Now," said he, "we will show
this to our jolly host; he will recognize it at
once, and if we are not among our friend's gray
snipe to-morrow betimes, we will give him
liberty to call us gray geese."

" But the first shot will bring the fellow out
upon us," said I.

" No," said he, laughing, "for cousin Sluice-

1% KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

dam let it ooze out, that his friend and his family
were on a visit to his place, to stay over Sun-
day."

"Then," said I, " he's had, confound him,
and I shall knock down his snipe with all the
greater satisfaction."

" He must live well inland," remarked T.,
carefully putting up the portrait, " I never saw
him before ; and I'll wager now the birds lie in
some tussocky meadow, or reedy marsh, along
the bank of a creek."

" Or in a wet stubble-field, most likely,"
said I.

"True," said he. "But send out the dogs,
let us kill partridges to-day and snipe to-morrow;
though how any sportsmen can compare the two
kinds of shooting, rather puzzles me to imagine."

In a few moments the dogs pointed in a buck-
wheat field, oil the edge of a corn stubble, and
after obtaining a double shot apiece, we fol-
lowed them into an orchard, where T. shot a
cock bird out of the low crotch of an apple tree.
They then pitched into a hedge along the steep
bank of a run, with a low, swampy meadow on
the further side. Here we killed them singly at
leisure, until we had pretty well thinned the
covey.

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 197

It was now near noon, and after pausing to
refresh ourselves at a spring, we debated the
propriety of fleeting away an hour or two in a
sunny hollow out of the wind, and although the
vote was unanimous to keep quiet until the birds
had returned to the stubbles, yet such is the
restless desire to keep moving, which a man im-
bibes in the marshes, that the decision was soon
reversed with equal unanimity, and resuming
our guns, we pushed on.

We will now take occasion to observe to the
general reader, that at this hour of the day the
birds are most difficult to find, each covey hav-
ing retired to some out of the way part of the
farm which it inhabits, where it lies in a com-
paratively small compass, basking, pruning and
dusting, precisely like chickens in the barnyard
or garden on a sunny day, after their crops are
filled.

The flight of the partridge from the stubbles,
or the drinking-place, is generally direct to the
pruning place, so that the dogs can find no clue
to the spot, though, occasionally, a sagacious
animal, falling back upon his experience, will
lead directly to the haunt. This is either on
the edge of a copse of young trees, in which the
sun's ray penetrates — under the lee of a gravelly
13

198 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

hill — in a sheltered hollow fringed with a few
scattered bushes, or under a large bush in a
boggy meadow, and we have even found them
in a rough, stony country, huddled in the hol-
low of a large stump. In stormy weather they
retire into the woods, in which situations we
have flushed them from under a thick cedar
bush. On the day in question, the first point
after we left the spring, occurred in a line of
thick grass close to a rail fence. The birds
flew from thence into an open woods, and the
covey being a very full one, we had considerable
sport in picking up the scattered birds. In hunt-
ing up these, T. bagged a woodcock and a ruffed
grouse, the first over a point by the setter, while
the last sprang at the report of his gun dis-
charged at a partridge, and was wing-tipped, at
a long shot, with the second barrel.

A circumstance attended the retrieving of this
bird, which went far to show some traits in the
disposition of the pointer dog, Czar. It was shot
from the edge of a ravine in the woods, and fell
among the thick brush at the bottom. I was
then in full sight of my companion, with Czar
hunting on the brink of the broken ground in ad-
vance. Contrary to the dog's custom and regu-
lar rule of training, at the report of T.'s gun, he

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 199

started down the side of the ravine at a run, but
turned and came in at the sound of the whistle,
dropping his stern rather sulkily as I thought.
The setter was sent into the ravine, but after a
long hunt was unable to find the bird. I then
directed the pointer " to seek dead bird," but he
refused to go out, and showed his teeth when
corrected, for which he received a sound thrash-
ing. We then sent both dogs out again, and
descended into the ravine, the sides and bottom
of which were covered with brush. After search-
ing for the grouse for some moments, we gave it
up and climbed the opposite side. When we
had advanced about a hundred yards deeper
in the woods, Czar suddenly turned back at full
gallop and in a few minutes came to my side
with the bird fluttering in his mouth. He had,
no doubt, observed it fall in- the first place, as he
had probably seen hundreds fall before, but why
he should show any desire to retrieve it before
he was ordered, unless he had noticed that it
was merely winged, was the puzzle. His sulki-
ness and impatience of correction, both of which
were unusual, inclined me strongly to think that
this was actually the case ; and when the bird
was found in the manner related, my friend and
I were confirmed in our belief. As T. remarked

200 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

at the time, it was one of those chance looks into
a dog's heart which a man is not favored with
every season.

We found four coveys before sundown, and
came in at night pretty well fagged, with twenty-
five brace and an odd bird, exclusive of the cock
and the grouse. On this day's excursion, on the
tenth of November, we did not meet with a
single covey of birds which were not fully
fledged.

The first thing now to be attended to, after
swallowing a glass of hot rum-punch and a
cracker, is to examine the dog's feet, wash them
with whiskey ; then see the animals well fed
and housed, with an abundance of water at their
command. The game is then to be strung and
hung out in a secure place, and the barrels of
the guns wrashed out. This being done you
may then retire to your room, wash and change;
and, curious as it may seem to the uninitiated,
descend to the dining-room, a veritable novus
homo, a genuine new man, with an excellent
appetite for the substantial repast, which the
host is careful to prepare for the sportsman. If
ever a man enters into the heart of his dinner, so
to speak, it is after a day's hunt, when the juicy
tenderness of a beef-steak melts through and

PAKTRIDGE SHOOTING. 201

through him, and the flavor of a wild duck, — if
he is lucky enough to have it on the board, —
leaves a sort of twang on the palate, which the
prince of gourmands might envy. We have a
friend who never tastes shad but once during

o

the season, and that is on his first snipe shooting
excursion in the spring. The remembrance of
that shad, taken out of the river in front of the
house where he generally puts up, lasts him
during the year, and he is always anxious to be
off on the succeeding spring, that he may taste
another.

After dinner you may have a glass of punch,
a chat, or a rubber of whist, if the party be large
enough, and then to bed. Before retiring, T.
showed his portrait of the countryman to our
host, who, after he had heard the circumstances
of the meeting, recognized it at once, and laugh-
ing heartily, readily put us on the track of the
snipe preserve, assuring us that the fellow was
one of the veriest churls and most renowned skin-
flints in the state.

" I can't tell exactly where snipe harbor on
his lands," said he, " for he lives several miles
inland from the shore, but it is off the road about
a half a mile back from the brick mill. Of
course, your dogs can't miss finding them, if

202 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

they are there, and I hope you won't leave a
bird on the place. You must look out for his
dog if you go near the house, for they say he is
as savage as a Turk, and as ready to fight as
Paul Jones."

The next morning we were on the road by
sunrise, and after an hour's drive came to the
mill, where we had the horse put up, and started
over the fields at once. After some travelling
over very unpromising ground, we suddenly
came upon a sunken corn-field of black loam,
with the stalks left standing and a gleam of water
in the furrows.

" Whist !" exclaimed T., pointing to the house
which was within two hundred yards, "here is
the ground, let us lose no time."

Accordingly, we crossed the fence and entered
at different points, each dog drawing steadily on
in advance, with the scent blowing full in his
nostrils. In this way they worked up to the
game, when — " Scheep ! scheep !" up flittered
the little gray imps, ten or twelve on a fly, and
down again, scarce twenty yards off, apparently
regardless of the reports, and showing little dis-
position to leave the ground. Observing this, I
reduced my charges, and soon found that T.
had done the same. And now was seen, to the

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 203

very best advantage, the admirable qualities of a
crack snipe dog. If both animals had not been
under perfect command, and gun-wise in every
respect, the birds would have soon collected in a
body, and left the place for a long flight, as we
knew of no snipe ground, except this twenty-
acre field, for miles around. But by keeping a
few paces in front, dropping at every shot, and
advancing as slowly as a dead march, when they
heard the click of the gun-locks, while their mas-
ters were careful to keep perfectly silent, the
snipe were little alarmed, and we had half of
them down before they rose higher in the wind
than our heads, seeming, as they darted up with
their usual weird cry, and alit a few rods off, to
be too busily engaged in feeding to regard us
in any other light, than peevish interlopers, who
would persist in coming between them and their
gnome-like operations on the moist earth. It is
well known to sportsmen, especially ( to snipe
shooters, that the voice of a man, or the miscon-
duct of a half-broken dog, will do more to scare
game away from a feeding ground, than the
sound of the guns, and that if the shooters move
silently and slowly on, regulating their charges
in proportion to the extent of the cover, and the
proximity with which the birds spring, it is

204 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

next to impossible to drive snipe, found in par-
ticular situations, from their feed, before their
numbers are pretty well thinned. In the happy
observance of these rules by the shooter and his
dogs, consists, in our opinion, the perfection of
the art, that the one should know how to follow
up his game, and the other to be either as slow as
a tortoise or as fleet as the wind, just as the occa-
sion may demand. In more than one instance
has the sportsman arrived on the ground, and
found it dried up, especially in a vast range of
flat meadow land ; when by sending out a fleet
dog he has, perhaps, seen him on a stand, or
marked water fly from his feet at a great dis-
tance; and upon coming up, lo! here is a wet
spot, with a cover of dead reeds, perhaps the only
one to be found for miles around — and here he
has often killed from thirty to forty birds. And
how often, on the other hand, has the sportsman,
who from culpable carelessnes, or a mistaken
spirit of economy, is content to go out with a
heedless, half-broken dog, had his temper tried
and his day's shooting spoilt, by seeing the birds
driven off before he has obtained a half a dozen
shots.

A pottering pointer or a setter that habitually
rakes, or carries his nose low, no matter how

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 205

staunch, he may be, is infinitely inferior to a
free, up-headed, thorough-broken, fast-going dog
of either stock, and such a dog at any time should
command a price, of from eighty-five to a hundred
dollars. But when gentlemen object, as is often
the case, to paying the price, after having made
a fair trial of the animal, it is not strange that
for one really good dog in our large cities, you
will find fifty that will break shot — run in upon
a point — prove gun-foolish in the field, and in
fact show nothing of the true sporting dog, ex-
cept his instinctive qualities of finding and point-
ing game. There are men of good knowledge in
sporting affairs, who have attempted to break
dogs in a proper way ; but the little encourage-
ment given to them by the public has thrown
the business almost entirely into the hands of
market-shooters, who, of all classes of men, prove
the very worst masters, into whose hands a pro-
mising young dog can possibly fall. However,
as sporting is largely on the increase among us,
no doubt, in the course of time, the evil will
remedy itself. In the meantime, never purchase
a dog without trying him yourself, especially if
he is offered at a reduced price.

We had gradually driven the remainder of
the birds into a part of the field nearest to the

206 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

house, when, as I fired at a snipe which rose in
front of me, I observed the farmer's dog coming
down the slope at full speed, and had barely time
to whistle in Czar, before the enraged brute
dashed into a run between us, struggled through
its oozy sides and came at me open mouthed. I
presented the muzzle of the gun, which he
eagerly seized, trying his teeth upon it several
times, though I forbore to fire the remaining
barrel, savage as he seemed, with his fierce eyes,
cropt ears, broad, bull-terrier head, and jaws like
those of a wolf trap. I was more afraid of his
getting hold Czar, who had, himself, a small
spice of Satan in his composition, when suddenly
he wheeled about, keeping all the time perfectly
mute, save a hyena snarl, and re-crossing the run,
waded through the mud and leisurely ascended
the hill. Re-loading the empty barrel, I ad-
vanced still nearer the house and fired again,
when down came old Blucher a second time,
passed the stream with the same fierce pertina-
city, and again tries his teeth on *my stub and
twist. This time I could not forbear laughing
in his face, which made him more furious than
ever, though he made no attempt to get at me
or the dog, but contented himself with wreaking
his wrath on the gun-barrel, against which he

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 207

appeared to have some especial pique. In a
minute or two he retreated as before, again tak-
ing his station on the summit of the hill, and ap-
parently keeping a sharp look-out. At the very
next shot, down he came the third time, when,
instead of forming a square to receive him, I
broke into an uncontrolable fit of laughter, which
so enraged T., who had come up in the mean-
time, that he levelled his piece at his head, and
would have put a stop to his peregrinations for-
ever, but for my earnest entreaties to do him no
harm. He soon returned to his post of observa-
tion, and we afterwards learned from a near
neighbor of the farmer's, that the mere report of
a gun was sufficient to arouse his fiercest ire,
which circumstance was attributed to his having
accidentally been shot a year or two before. On
the succeeding fall a party from the city got
into trouble about the same dog, one of them
having shot him dead, while charging him like
a perfect fury in a stubble-field.

Having killed thirty odd brace of snipe in the
corn-field, and along the run, we were returning
to the mill by the lane, when we encountered
Mr. Sluicedam's friend and his family returning
home from their visit, and a pretty rage the man
flew into when he spied the birds in the netting,

208 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

for we carried game-bags in those days. He
checked his horse at once', and exasperated by a
look of triumph which I could not forbear,
jumped from his wagon and confronted us.

" Who gave you liberty to shoot over these
grounds ?" he began, while the miller who was
with him, also alighted, and the old lady and the
little ones thrust their curious faces out of the
vehicle, in expectation of a grand row.

" Why," says T., in his blandest way, " did
not you, yourself, tell us that the birds were
here?"

" Yes, I did," he replied, working himself up
as if he found it difficult to stand our friend's
manner and something in his eye, " but I did
not tell you to come after them — dang it !"

" My good fellow," returned T., with greater
suavity than before, " when next you have
game on your place, if you wish to preserve them,
let me caution you against showing even so
much as their tail-coverts to an old snipe
shooter. Good morning !"

So saying he moved on and I followed, touch-
ing my hat to the dame, and leaving the two
countrymen standing stock still in the lane, as
mute as mile-stones. The next day we returned
to the city and have heard nothing of Mr. Sluice-
dam and his friend since.

PARTKIDGE SHOOTING. 209

Nothing satisfactory is yet known respecting trie
cause which impels the partridge to shift its lo-
cality, for a few weeks, during what is commonly
called the running season. These movements oc-
cur in October and the first week in November,
generally in companies considerably exceeding
the usual number of the respective coveys, and
are observed to be directed from the north-
west towards the sea-board, and the low grounds
along the large water-courses. Possibly, they
may be governed by an instinctive desire for
some unknown species of food, only to be found
in these latter districts. The little travellers,
like the devotees of old, literally perform their
annual pilgrimage barefoot, merely making use
of their wings to cross such streams as occur in
their route, and running with such amazing
swiftness, when encountered by man, as to
make it difficult to overtake and flush them,
even with a fleet dog. We have frequently met
them crossing the roads in great numbers, and
at other times observed them running through
the streets of towns and villages, and even upon
the house-tops, before sun-rise. The same
periodical movements have been noticed in the
ruffed grouse and the wild turkey, and a few
years since a small flock of the latter made their

210 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

appearance on the Susquehanna, as low down
as Port Deposit. The pilgrimage is said to ter-
minate in the return of the birds to their native
haunts, and their re-division into coveys of from
eight or ten to fifteen or twenty.

In regard to the companies of confirmed old
bachelors, asserted by Forrester to have been
found in the family of the American partridge,
it is our misfortune, claiming as we do, to be-
long to the distinguished fraternity, never to
have encountered these feathered odd-fellows.
In the crowded English preserves, according to
the statement of various old writers, such socie-
ties do actually exist, and these old cocks do
incontinently wage war upon the young ones,
partly for the sake of enjoying their privacy,
undisturbed by ridiculous affairs of gallantry,
which they have long ago found to be mere
vanity and vexation of soul, and partly from a
delectable spirit of moroseness which, thank
heaven, every bachelor beneath the stars, has
an undisputed right to affect, whenever he
sees fit. We are, certainly, much indebted
to Mr. Herbert's penetration in discovering
these little isolated communities of Benedicts,
which still endure in the midst of gynarchies,
and whose habits tally so remarkably with

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 211

those of the English partridge, as described by
Mr. Daniel and other veteran sportsmen. Some
cavillers might hint that Forrester had taken
the British accounts and applied them in a slap-
dash way to the American bird ; for our own
part, whenever we may chance to meet the
odd-fellows parading in the badges of their
order, during the season when the rest of the
species are divided into pairs, and attending
to family duties, we shall not fail to extend the
right hand of fellowship towards them, in the
shape of one of Krider's stub and twist. Until
that time, not wishing to be too hasty in con-
clusions, we reserve our opinion. We do not,
however, believe that the disproportion between
the males and females is so great as is repre-
sented by some writers ; that a plurality of
males does exist in the broods is not denied ;
but we think that even the English accounts
are exaggerated in this respect, especially as an
error has seemed to have been at one time
prevalent in that country, in reference to the
markings of the male and female bird.

In its character the American partridge is
lively and courageous, very impatient of con-
finement, and attached in a remarkable degree
to the locality in which it is bred. Whether

212 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

from old associations or something in their ap-
pearance and habits, there is a feeling akin to
sweet and innocent fellowship involved in the
presence of these birds on a country homestead.
The simplicity of their wonted, mellow call,
falls soothingly upon the ear in the pleasant
summer time, and

" When icicles hang by the \vall,"

and the field is wrapped in its mantle of white,
one might almost imagine a religious sentiment
connected with their appearance in the barn-
yard, or the print of their tiny feet in the snow,
as if they were the fowls of the air mentioned
in Holy Writ, and as such must be fed for a
little season. In conclusion, we could heartily
wish that the few coveys which have survived
the severity of the winters of fifty -one and two,
might be allowed to recruit their diminished
numbers in peace, for several successive seasons.
We shall conclude this article with a brief
sketch of Hark, a celebrated setter dog, the pro-
perty of L. de la Cuesta, Esq., of this city.
This dog is of imported stock, and bears so close
a resemblance to an engraving of Beau in the
third volume of Mr. Daniel's Rural Sports of
England, that the likeness of one dog. taken
more than a half a century since, might tri-

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 213

umphantly pass at the present day for that of
the other.

Hark was bred by a Mr. Robinson of Wil-
mington, Delaware, and came into his present
owner's possession at the age of ten months.
At that time he was a rough, rugged-looking
puppy, and first attracted notice by the steadi-
ness and sagacity which he displayed on the
snipe grounds. After purchasing him from Mr.
Robinson, Mr. Cuesta was induced to bestow
unusual attention to his training, and he sub-
sequently became a very superior animal. Like
his counterpart of old, — from whom he may,
possibly, be descended, — he was equally excel-
lent on all varieties of game, and as a snipe dog
was, perhaps, never excelled. He is of a large
size, very roughly coated, of a white color, the
ears dashed with dark red spots. In his best
days he was hunted with Poke, a liver-colored
pointer belonging to the same gentleman, and
also a capital field dog. As a proof of the
staunchness of Hark, he has been repeatedly
left pointing partridges, while the sportsman
crossed the fence to shoot over Poke, who had
found a second covey in an adjoining field.
The first dog was always discovered at his post
on the shooter's return. It was only necessary
14

214 KRIDE1VS SPORTING ANECDOTES.

for his master to speak to him in the first in-
stance, to ensure this, after an absence of nearly
an hour, and if found lying on the ground, he
would rise and resume his true professional
attitude as the parties approached. He was a
capital retriever and an expert swimmer. It
was, probably, owing to his docility in lying
close when so ordered, that the lives of the
editor and a friend were not endangered, when
crossing the Delaware in a skiff during a
south-easterly blow. Had he destroyed the
equilibrium of the boat, by shifting his posi-
tion as the water dashed over him, she must
have inevitably filled in the middle of the
river.

In hunting ruffed grouse he displayed great
skill and sagacity, watching and taking the
direction in which the pack flew, though he
never acquired that curious propensity which
we have seen manifested by some field dogs, to
give tongue the instant that the birds are sprung,
and marking the tree on which they often alight
at this challenge, continue the clamors at its
foot, until half the pack is shot down. In this
case the infatuation of the grouse, and its inat-
tention to the approach of the shooter and even
to the reports of his gun, are more strikingly dis-

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 215

played than in any of the instances previously
adduced.* It is necessary, however, to have
very sharp eyes, or you will fail to discover the
birds, and to shoot the lower ones first, as the
rustle attending their fall through the branches
of the tree, breaks the force of the spell, and
enables the rest to escape. We have never seen
this mode of shooting grouse succeed, except in
the month of September when the birds are
young, though we have repeatedly been assured
by farmers, that they have killed old birds
under precisely similar circumstances.

Ruffed grouse shooting is generally laborious
and unsatisfactory work, though, as a variety,
we have sometimes enjoyed a half a day's sport
in the rugged hills of Bucks and Montgomery,

* They sit upon the large limbs near the trunk of the tree, turn-
ing their heads from side to side, precisely as the chicken has been
observed to do under similar circumstances, and gazing down in
amazement at the dog, which animal would appear to exert as
powerful an influence over the birds through the medium of his
voice, as he does over water-fowl by his antics on the shore. Had
these mysterious powers of fascination been observed in the cat,
they would have went far to establish her supposed connection
with witches and warlocks, the first suspicions of which, no doubt,
rose out of her still and wierd-like gravity of demeanor. Tray's
spirit, however, shines too clearly through his clay for him ever to
be accused of leaning to the black art.

216 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

where a few broods still linger. Within our
recollection, however, they have entirely disap-
peared from sections of the country, where they
were once often met with. They afford more
sport in September, when the young birds are
fully grown, and in this month we have occa-
sionally found them in fresh buckwheat stub-
bles, and in plantations of young trees, in close
proximity to the woody and precipitous bank of
a stream. On the farm of an eccentric old
bachelor, dubbed by his neighbors in the upper
part of Montgomery, King John, these birds
once bred in undisturbed security. The old
fellow was peculiar in his habits, and had not
slept from under the roof of his homestead, for
fifty years. He suffered a large part of his farm
to lie untilled, and never allowed a gun to be
fired on his premises, except the venerable fowl-
ing piece, which, in imitation of ancient usages,
he regularly discharged from his kitchen door
at sundown, to let the wicked world within
hearing know, that, as usual, he was at home.
His house stood upon a hill, one side of which
was precipitous, and covered with cedars, oaks
and laurels; on this side, a steep and broken
path, known as the Devil's staircase, led down
to a mill-dam, on which we have occasionally

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 217

shot black duck and teal, in spite of King
John's taboo. As to the grouse which in-
habited the woody side of the creek, gentle
reader, they went, where and how you must
invoke the shades of Toby and Carlo to de-
termine.

WILD FOWL.

DUCK SHOOTING.

Proudly pre-eminent among the water-fowl of
the United States, for the elegance of its
plumage, the exquisite flavor of its flesh, and
the sport which it affords the shooter, stands
the far-famed canvass-back. Gentle reader, if
you have ever lain submerged in a battery on
Devil's Island, or in ambuscade in the narrows
of Spesutia, and watched them pitching, in their
superb way, among your decoys, or bent to your
oars on a blustering day, and snatched them
from the rough waters of the Chesapeake ; or
studied the markings of their winter dress, as
they lay upon the thwTart-board of the scow in
pairs of fifty at a time, and finally, if you have
sailed, poled or swept back to Havre de Grace
by the light of the moon — dropped anchor and
gone on shore to dine upon them cooked au
naturel, — then, perhaps, you have realized, to
its fullest extent, the spell contained in those
potent words, —

DUCK SHOOTING. 219

ANAS VALISIXERIA.

THE CANVASS-BACK.

Description. — " The canvass-back duck is two
feet long and three in extent, and when in good
order, weighs three pounds ; the bill is large,
rising high in the head, three inches in length,
and one inch and three-eighths thick at the base,
of a glossy black; eye, very small; irides, dark
red ; cheeks and fore part of the head, blackish
brown ; rest of the head and greater part of the
neck, bright glossy reddish chestnut, ending in
a broad space of black that covers the upper
part of the breast, and spreads round to the
back ; back, scapulars and tertials, white, faintly
marked with an infinite number of transverse,
waving lines or points, as if done with a pencil;
whole lower parts of the breast, also the belly,
white, slightly pencilled in the same manner,
scarcely perceptible on the breast, pretty thick
towards the vent; wing-coverts, gray, with
numerous specks of blackish; primaries and
secondaries, pale slate, two or three of the latter
of which nearest the body are finely edged with
deep, velvety black, the former dusky at the
tips; tail, very short, pointed, consisting of

220 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

fourteen feathers of a hoary brown ; vent and
tail-coverts black, lining of the wing, white ;
legs and feet, very pale ash, the latter three
inches in width — a circumstance which partly
accounts for its great powers of swimming.
The female is somewhat less than the male, arid
weighs two pounds and three-quarters ; the
crown is blackish brown ; cheeks and throat of
a pale drab; neck, dull brown; breast, as far as
the black extends on the male, dull brown,
skirted in many places with pale drab; back,
dusky white, crossed with fine, waving lines ;
belly, of the same dull white, pencilled like the
back ; wings, feet and bill as in the male ; tail-
covert, dusky ; vent, white, waved with brown.
The windpipe of the male has a large, flattish,
concave labyrinth, the ridge of which is covered
with a thin, transparent membrane ; where the
trachea enters this, it is very narrow, but im-
mediately above swells to three times that
diameter. The intestines are wide, and mea-
sure five feet in length."

Ranking next to the canvass-back, in the
estimation of the sportsman and the epicure, is

DUCK SHOOTING. 221

THE RED-HEADED DUCK.

ANAS FERINA.

Description. — " The red-head is twenty inches
in length, and two feet six inches in extent; bill,
dark slate, sometimes black, two inches long,
and seven-eighths of an inch thick at the base,
furnished with a large, broad nail at the ex-
tremity; irides, flame colored; plumage of the
head, long, velvety, and inflated, running high
above the base of the bill ; head and two inches
of the neck, deep glossy reddish chestnut ; rest
of the neck and upper part of the breast, black,
spreading round to the back ; belly, white, be-
coming dusky towards the vent by closely
marked, undulating lines of black; back and
scapulars, bluish white, rendered gray by
numerous transverse, waving lines of black;
lesser wing-coverts, brownish ash, wing-quills,
very pale slate, dusky at the tips; lower part
of the back and sides under the wings, brownish
black, crossed with regular zigzag lines of
whitish ; vent, rump, tail, and tail-coverts,
black ; legs and feet, dark ash.

" The female has the upper part of the head
dusky brown, rest of the head and part of the
neck, a light, sooty brown ; upper part of the

222 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

breast, ashy brown, broadly skirted with whit-
ish; back, dark ash, with little or no appear-
ance of white penciling ; wings, bill and feet
nearly alike in both sexes. The male of this
species has a large, flat, bony labyrinth on the
bottom of the wind-pipe, very much like that of
the canvass-back, but smaller ; over one of its
concave sides is spread an exceeding thin,
transparent skin or membrane. The intestines
are of great width, and measure six feet in
length."

After the red-head we have the bald-pate, or

AMERICAN WIDGEON.

ANAS AMERICANA.

Description, — " The widgeon, or bald -pate,
measures twenty-two inches in length, and
thirty inches in extent ; the bill is of a slate
color; the nail, black; the front and crown,
cream colored, sometimes nearly wrliite, the
feathers inflated ; from the eye, backwards to
the middle of the neck behind, extends a band
of deep glossy green, gold, and purple ; throat,
chin, and sides of the neck before, as far as the
green extends, dull yellowish white, thickly
speckled with black; breast arid hind part of

DUCK SHOOTING. 223

the neck, hoary bay, running in under the
wings, where it is crossed with fine, waving
lines of black; whole belly, white; vent, black;
back and scapulars, black, thickly and beauti-
fully crossed with undulating lines of vinous
bay ; lower part of the back, more dusky ; tail-
coverts, long, pointed, whitish, crossed as the
back; tail, pointed, brownish ash; the two
middle leathers an inch longer than the rest,
and tapering ; shoulder of the wing, brownish
ash ; wing-coverts immediately below, white,
forming a large spot; primaries, brownish ash;
middle secondaries, black, glossed with green,
forming the speculum ; tertials, black, edged
with white, between which, and the beauty
spot, several of the secondaries are white.

" The female has the whole head and neck yel-
lowish white, thickly speckled with black, very
little rufous on the breast; the back is dark
brown. The young males, as usual, very much
like the females on the first season, and do not
receive their full plumage until the second year.
They are also subject to a regular change every
spring and fall."

To this description of Wilson's, Brewer adds
the following remarks concerning the European
widgeon :

224 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

" This species (the American) is closely al-
lied to the European widgeon. The}7 seem to
meet each other about the Artie circle ; that of
the American extending beyond it, and that of
Europe reaching to the European verge. The
bird of Europe, except in the breeding season,
is mostly an inhabitant of the sea-shore ; during
a severe winter, a few stray inland to the larger
lakes and rivers, but as soon as a recurrence of
moderate weather takes place, they return to
their more favorite feeding grounds. In Britain
they are mostly migratory, and at the first com-
mencement of our hard weather, are found in
vast flocks on the flatter coasts, particularly
where there are beds of muscles, and other
shell-fish. During the day, they rest and plume
themselves on the higher shelves, or doze buoy-
ant on the waves, and only commence their
activity with the approach of twilight. At this
time they become clamorous, and rising in
dense flocks from their day's resort, proceed to
the feeding grounds, generally according with
the wind in the same tract. At the commence-
ment of winter, they are fat and delicate, much
sought after by sportsmen, and are killed by per-
sons lying in watch in the track of the known
flight, or what, in some parts, is called slaking.

DUCK SHOOTING. 225

The most propitious night for this sport is about
half moon, and strong wind ; the birds then fly
low, and their approach is easily known by the
whistling of their wings, and there own shrill cry ;
wrhence their coast-name of Hew.

"They are subject to annual change of plum-
age. Mr. Ord mentions, that a few of these
birds breed annually in the marshes in the
neighborhood of Duck Creek, in the state of
Delaware. ATI acquaintance of the editor's
brought him thence, in the month of June, an
egg, which had been taken from a nest situated
in a cluster of alders."

Next to the widgeon comes the black-head, or

SCAUP DUCK.

ANAS MAKILLA.

Called the Blue-bill on the Delaware and the Black-head on the
Chesapeake.

Description. — " This duck is nineteen inches
in length, and twenty-nine in extent ; bill, broad,
generally of a light blue, sometimes of a dusky
lead color; irides, reddish; head, tumid, covered
with plumage of a dark, glossy green, extending
half way down the neck ; rest of the neck and
breast, black, spreading round to the back ; back

226 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

and scapulars, white, thickly crossed with wav-
ing lines of black ; lesser coverts, dusky, pow-
dered with veins of whitish ; primaries and ter-
tials, brownish black ; secondaries, white, tipped
with black, forming the speculum ; rump and
tail-coverts, black ; tail, short, rounded, and of a
dusky brown; belly, white, crossed near the
vent with waving lines of ash; legs and feet,
dark slate. Such is the color of the bird in its
perfect state. Young birds vary considerably,
some having the head black, mixed with gray
and purple, others the back dusky, with little or
no white, and that irregularly dispersed. The
female has the front and sides of the same white ;
head and half of the neck, blackish brown;
breast, spreading round the back, a dark sooty
brown, broadly skirted with whitish ; back,
black, thinly sprinkled with grains of white;
vent, whitish ; wings, the same as the male.

" The windpipe of the male of this species is
of large diameter : the labyrinth, similar to some
others, though not of the largest kind ; it has
something of the shape of a single cockle shell ;
its open side, or circular rim, covered with a
thin, transparent skin. Just before the wind-
pipe enters this, it lessens its diameter at least
two-thirds, and assumes a nattish form."

DUCK SHOOTING. 227

The use of this labyrinth in the trachea of
this and others of the genus, is, doubtless for the
production of certain peculiar sounds, by which
the bird communicates different emotions to its
fellows.

The three last described ducks are all com-
panions of the canvass-back, and like it, feed
upon the same aquatic plant, a species of valisi-
neria, which abounds upon the submerged flats
at the head-waters of the Chesapeake. It grows
in from seven to nine feet water, has a narrow
blade, four or five feet in length, and a delicate,
semi-translucent root, like very small celery.
The canvass-back, which is the most expert
diver, tears the grass from the shoals with its
strong bill, eating only the root, while the others
regale themselves on the rejected part, or the
blade. They are, however, accused on good
evidence, of occasionally snatching the entire
plant from the bill of their provider, the instant
that it re-appears, and this species of petty larceny
is especially charged upon the widgeon, which,
besides being of a lively, mercurial disposition,
is known never to dive, except when dodging a
pursuing boat, and too much crippled to take
wing. The canvass-back often resents this in-
jury, and the feeding ground is the scene of

223 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

many a squabble, precisely similar in character
to those which are every day witnessed among
our tame fowl, on the pond and in the barn-
yard.

All these ducks stool readily, except the wid-
geon, which is apt to soar and make off as it
nears the battery, often giving the alarm, in this
way, to whole flocks of other ducks, which are
on the fly for the decoys. On this account it is
rather in bad odor with the shooters of Havre
de Grace, who, while watching the box from the
scow, rarely fail to exult in the fall of a bald-
pate.

Canvass-backs, however, afford the best sport,
as they fly more compactly and dart better than
any other species of duck. In eluding their
pursuers by diving, milling round and swim-
ming under water, when pinioned, they are only
equalled by the scaup-duck, and a chase after a
crippled "hickory quaker" or a " bay black-head,"
is sometimes only to be successfully ended by
driving them into very shoal water, where they
are speedily knocked in the head.

Late in the fall of the year 18 — , while par-
tridge shooting in the neighborhood of the Chesa-
peake, we received an invitation from Mr. J. W.
McCullough, of Port Deposit, to accompany him

DUCK SHOOTING. 229

on an excursion in a new scow, which he had
built and equipped after the most approved man-
ner, especially to kill ducks in the Susquehanna
and the upper bay. She was wall- sided and
flat-bottomed, forty feet long and nine feet beam.
She carried a jib and a lartre fore and aft main-
sail. A space barely sufficient for a tall man to
lie at length, was decked off forward, and con-
tained three or four bunks and a small stove,
besides the stooling guns, several bags of heavy
shot and kegs of ducking powder, not to speak
of a quart coffee-pot and two large baskets of
provender. This was the hardy duck-shooter's
cabin ; it was well pitched so as to be waterlight,
and was entered by a small scuttle with a slide ;
here he cooked, eat, slept, kept tally of his game,
manufactured the heads and necks of decoys,
cut his gun-wads, spun his yarns, drank his grog
or coffee, and kept care outside from October
until April, during the severest season of the
year.

The scow's rudder was set on a pivot so as to
be readily unshipped in case of necessity, or to
be used like the steering-oar of a whale boat, in
throwing her head around. She had large lee-
boards, which enabled her to lie very close to the
wind in moderate weather, though from her
15

230 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

shape and her being all above water, she was
sure to make much leeway in a rough sea.
Going large in fair weather she sailed and steered
well, and in fact, was just the sort of craft which
is especially adapted for navigating the shoal
water of the upper bay.

Midships rested the battery or "sunk-box," of
which we shall soon have occasion to speak, and
piled up in great heaps abaft on either side, but
so as not to interfere with the motions of the
rudder, were the decoys or wooden ducks, each
having its cord, with the weight attached, wound
round its body, the last turn being taken round
the neck, regular duck-shooter fashion. They
had evidently seen service from their bleached
and weather-beaten looks. Some of them bore
the appearance of having been recently pretty
well peppered in the way of business, and par-
ticles of grass might still be seen adhereing to
the anchors and cables of a few of the upper-
most. The scow was furnished with raft-poles,
and heavy oars or sweeps to be used in forcing
her over the flats in a calm, and two large,
four-oared, flat-bottomed boats, called yawls,
towed astern.

At two o'clock on a cold, clear morning, we
set off from McCullough's hospitable roof, and

DUCK SHOOTING. 231

traversing the single, straggling street, reached
the scow at Wilmer's wharf, where we found
the helmsman and the boy waiting for us on
board. The fastenings were cast off, and getting
clear of the rafts, we run up the jib, and with
the wind fresh from nor'-west, stood down along
the shore, which is bold, and could be just seen
from the scow, with here and there the white
front of a dwelling, looming up above the town
in the dim glimmer of the star-light. It was our
intention to set the battery on Devil's Island, so
called, though in reality it is nothing but a
sunken shoal, lying nearly south-west from
Havre de Grace, and on the western side of the
swash, or channel through the submerged flats.
These last, be it understood by the general rea-
der, extend for eight miles or more from the
mouth of the river to the island of Spesutia, and
are the feeding grounds on which tens of thou-
sands of the choicest species of ducks, are annu-
ally slaughtered by the market-shooters of Havre
de Grace. Below Spesutia the water is deeper,
but from the island to Havre de Grace the ship-
channel is, so to speak, but a mere " swash."
This entire ground, from the slight rise of the
tide, and from the fact of its being thickly
covered with grass, which is the food of the

232 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

fowl, and serves also to break the force of the
seas, which roll in from the lower bay, is especi-
ally suited for the operations of the floating
batteries.

It was our good fortune to be accompanied on
this excursion by an old friend from the city,
whom we encountered at Port Deposit, and after
seeing the mainsail set, and the craft fairly under
way, steering for Havre de Grace light, we
retired to the cabin, to while away the time by
listening to the sporting experience of the owner
of the scow, or by chatting over adventures of
the past. Passing Havre de Grace, we found
the duck shooters of that place already on the
stir, and were successively hailed by Baird,
Holly and other famous shots, who were prepar-
ing to drop down to their respective anchoring
grounds.

Coming to, at last, just as the moon rose, we
dropped anchor on the shoal, and waited impa-
tiently until within a half an hour of daybreak,
when, all things else being in readiness, we
went to work transferring the decoys into the
boats, and launching the battery over the side.
This last was done by our united strength as
carefully as possible, so as to avoid shipping
water into the box, McCullough then stepped

DUCK SHOOTING. 233

into the box, unfolded the floating wings
and turned up the guards ; several pigs of iron,
sufficiently heavy to sink the frame of the battery
to the water's edge, were handed in ; a board,
covered with a blanket, was then laid over these
on the bottom of the sunken box, and after re-
ceiving the guns and ammunition, the occupant
pushed off from the scow with his boat-hook,
while we jumped into the yawl to tow the
machine head to wind on the selected spot, and
assist in setting the stools. The former was
then anchored stem and stern, and by the wan-
ing light of the moon we proceeded to dispose the
decoys, in the arrangement of which McCul-
lough, like most expert duck-shooters, was very
fastidious.

They were placed so as to ride freely without
coming in contact with each other, principally
at the stern and on either hand of the side wings,
the perfection of the art appearing to be to avoid
leaving a gap in any part of the rank, and yet to
prevent, if possible, the ducks from falling
foul. A few of the lightest were placed imme-
diately on the wings, and several heads of de-
coys were firmly fixed on wooden pins on the
deck of the battery. The false ducks were not
all imitations of canvass-backs, but had red-

234 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

heads, black-heads, and a few hald-pates, inter-
mingled with the nobler variety. The outside
duck at the tail of the rank was a veteran can-
vass-back, facetiously called the toller.

The rank being now complete and made to
mimic life to admiration by the action of the
ripples, — as each duck rode knowingly to its
anchor, — and the frame in which the box was
set flush with the water's edge, yet preserved
from filling by the floating wings fore and aft,
and at the sides, of course, the box being deep
enough to receive the body of a man laid at
length, must be sunk some eighteen inches be-
low the surface, and the shooter 'himself, in his
watery ambuscade, perfectly invisible to the
passing ducks, except from the air immediately
over his head. The water being moderately
smooth, the guards were then turned down flat
with the deck, and while the boats pulled back
to the scow, which immediately lifted her an-
chor, the shooter loaded his three guns, and
placing them in the box with their muzzles rest-
ing on its edge, took a last look at his decoys ;
then observing daylight breaking in the east, he
laid himself flat on his back on the board, and
shut out from every object and every sound, save
the pale, dull sky and the slight, rippling plash

DUCK SHOOTING. 235

within an inch of his head, — all eye and ear,
waited patiently for his first dart.

We had hardly anchored about a half a mile
higher up, so as not to interfere with the flight
of the game, which, as a rule, work to wind-
ward and of course come up to leeward of the
shooter, or at his feet, before we heard the faint
report of his gun, although it was not sufficiently
light to see either the ducks or the decoys from
the scow.

The boy continued to report shot after shot,
while we were engaged in eating our breakfast
in the cabin, and as we came out, Davis, the
helmsman, directed our attention to a large flock
of canvass-backs, some of whom he swore in his
emphatic way, "were going into the pot."
Glancing along the broad expanse of water on
which the sun had now risen, we plainly saw
the ducks sweeping swiftly up to the tail of the
decoys, among which the foremost had hardly
alighted, before you saw the dark figure of
McCullough rise from the water as if by magic —
then the successive discharges, and the white
water occasioned by the fall of each duck, the
helmsman counting five down. The next instant
the shooter was standing up, waving his cap,
arid jumping into the yawl with Ben Davis, we

236 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

pulled away with might and main to secure the
dead ducks.

Fifteen canvass-backs and three red-heads
were picked up, two of these, which were crip-
pled, being shot over, as the phrase goes, with
a small gun loaded with number eight. We
then rowed straight for the battery, in which
McCullough now insisted that we should take
our turn. There was no time to argue matters
with ducks on the fly ; so landing on one side of
the deck, while he came off at the other, we took
our place in some trepidation of spirit, years have
been intervened since we had drawn trigger on
wild fowl, if we except occasionally knocking
over a crippled sprig- tail or mallard on the snipe
grounds. The remembrance that our friend
from Philadelphia was a capital duck-shot, by
no means tended to allay this feeling, and it was
not until the sound of oars had died away on our
ears, and we felt ourselves, as it were, alone with
the decoys, which kept bobbing their heads as if
they were actually swallowing duck- weed with
the greatest possible gusto, and shifting their
bearings with inimitable gravity, that we re-
gained our wonted nerve, and made up our mind
to mischief. The next moment our ears were
saluted by the whistling of fowls' wings, and the

DUCK SHOOTING. 237

patter of their feet in the act of alighting on the
left of the battery; seizing the small gun we sat
up in the box and knocked over one canvass-
back swimming among the stools, and a second
as it rose, and catching up the second gun fired
ineffectually at two others making off; then
charging the pieces, cast a glance at the dead
birds to ascertain the direction of their drift, and
sank back out of sight, without as much as look-
ing at the scow, feeling very certain that had
the presence of mind, in which we felt so assured
before, governed our actions, all four ducks
would have been at that moment floating dead
on the tide. In fact, gentle reader, in the unex-
c usable heat of the moment, a great blunder had
been committed in shooting at the ducks in the
water, when we should have first drawn trigger
on those yet upon the wing, but in the act of
dropping their sterns, to alight outside of the
first; when we should have used the second gun
on the others, which would have still been with-
in available distance. Had Fred been there, we
thought, he would have had four ducks down;
but, n' importe, let them come again.

But at least ten minutes of expectation elapsed
before another shot was obtained, during which
time, to recover our coolness, we watched the

238 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

motion of a red-head decoy, close to the after
wing. A comical-looking, hard-a-weather old
fellow he was, with the nail of his bill shot off
and his head turned over his back, and there he
kept veering and bowing, now looking us right
in the eye over the edge of the wings, as he
topped a small surge, and now disappearing from
our sight again, — when, all at once, a small flock
of black-heads appeared, setting their wings to
alight, as it seemed right over him, and rising
more coolly this time, we managed to kill three
out of seven and cripple down a fourth, without
finding occasion to use the second gun, the sur-
vivors going off so swiftly to our right, that they
were far to leeward by the time we had turned.
After this we had pretty shooting for about an
hour, when Davis came out to relieve us, Fred
preferring to take his turn in the afternoon, as
the swell was sinking fast with the wind, and in
a half an hour it bade fair to be calm. Accord-
ingly Davis had not fired more than a half a
dozen shots, killing a canvass-back at each dis-
charge, before the water was as smooth as a mill-
pond; our own decoys and those of one or two
other batteries at a still greater distance, loomed
up on the glassy flood as large as geese ; the
ducks ceased to stool, and we passed away the

DUCK SHOOTING. 239

time until noon chatting, and examining the
game, which lay ranged in pairs on the thwart-
boards, or starting up as the report of Davis' gun
told of an occasional shot at a single duck, pass-
ing over his stools, on its way up or down the
bay.

While we were at dinner a circumstance hap-
pened at the battery, which almost caused Davis
to avow himself a believer in the doctrine of pre-
destination, at least as regards wild fowl shoot-
ing. Not having had a shot for some time, he
was lying at his ease with his cap drawn over
his eyes to defend them from the vertical rays of
the sun, when a swan passed slowly over his de-
coys, and strange to say, every gun in the battery
missed fire, and the noble bird continued its course
down the bay unharmed.

"I had drawn for his neck," said the unfortu-
nate duck-shooter, " and was as sure of him as I
was of my supper ; but the Walker caps are not
worth the copper they are made of any more,

and I suppose the d d bird would have gone

free, if I had fired the biggest swivel-gun on the
Potomac at his head, at the same distance."

" No doubt of it," said we; there is no fight-
ing against fate — but to change the subject, were
you ever caught in a heavy blow in one of these
tubs, Ben?" "

240 KRIDEE'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

" Was I?" he echoed, looking sideways at us,
while he kept his swarthy face turned like a
wall towards the box, in which Fred was now
lying; "you see, sir, we left Annapolis that
morning bound for the Potomac for a change of
ground ; the wind was west when we started,
but soon hauled to N. N. E. and then back to
north, blowing a regular persimmon gale. I was
at the helm — Tom painting decoys, — when the
sail jibed and she came head to in spite of us —
shipped three seas in less than three minutes —
a hogshead of water at each sea — lost all the
decoys overboard — started the sunk-box — tore
mainsail from the gaff, and had to run into Cove
Point harbor, eight miles from Patuxet river,
where we lay snug enough until it had spit its
spite."

"A good harbor that?" we asked by way of
passing time.

" Ay," said he, " the best on the Chesapeake —

a perfect basin — but d n that swan and the

hen that hatched him ! I don't care for the
value of the bird, sir — I've seen acres on acres
of 'em at a time, mixed in with geese, — but by
the North Pole, it was enough to make a man
forswear father and mother and turn Turk to
lose the shot."

DUCK SHOOTING. 241

" But where did you see swans by the acre?"
said we.

"Where?" he repeated, "why in a dozen
places, to be sure ; but the most I ever did see,
was on a sandbar, with rocks at its head, that
makes up and covers the mouth of the Yeoco-
moco river. There's two bars, by the way, both
making from the mainland, one up from the
mouth of the river, and the other down ; there's
not a foot of water on either bar ; you must stand
up between the two, or you'll stick. Both bars
were covered with geese and swans, and when
they got up a half a mile off, they made a noise
like all old Nick's hounds in full cry; — but there
goes a small dart of red-heads — no, they've
turned — yes — there they go — there they go,
straight for the decoys — four ducks down !"

"Ay," said McCullough, "Mr. W. shoots
ducks well ; I've been out with him before ; he's
quite as sure in the box as you or I, Ben."

" Ay," answered Ben, "it may be, in moderate
weather and when the ducks come well up : but
what would he do in the box in a heavy swell,
with the wind as keen as a knife, on a December
day?"

" Oh !" said McCullough, " that is a horse of
another color. The clouds are moving in the

242 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

nor'-west ; \ve shall have the breeze in the old
quarter."

" Here it comes," said Ben, " we shall kill
ducks fast before sun-down."

'•Whose scow is that anchored in shore in a
line with yon bluff, Ben?"

" Baird's, I reckon," answered Ben, " and he
has had shooting ; the ducks have been flying
that way all the morning."

The wind soon freshened, and the bay was
all animation again, the ducks flying in large
flocks, the batteries cannonading, boats plying
to and fro, and Fred shooting in a style not to be
surpassed. The puffs of smoke rising from the
water's edge, reminded us strongly of the hur-
ried glimpse which a sailor sometimes gets of a
white jet or spout, when he turns his head for a
moment, while pulling to windward in chase of
a gallied sperm whale ; and the sight of a dark
figure suddenly seen standing apparently on the
water a half a mile off, and then as suddenly
sinking again, bore some resemblance to a much
rarer sight, a whale's head thrust vertically out
of the sea, seen from the masthead at the hori-
zon's verge on a clear day.

In the course of the afternoon Davis and our-
selves had a sharp chase after a crippled duck ;

DUCK SHOOTING. 243

from the trouble it gave us we both, supposed it
to be a canvass-back, but after being killed at
last by a snap shot, it proved to be a black-
head.*

Fred continued in the box during the whole
afternoon, and as far as our remembrance serves
us, did not miss a single duck. At sun-down we
pushed off from the scow to " take up." While
securing the decoys, a canvass-back darted twice
between the boats and the battery, and return-
ing a third time was killed by our city friend
who was still in the box. We have often ob-
served this sort of infatuation in the most wary
and shy of the feathered race ; time after time
in the falcon tribe, and even in the common
crow. We have shot hawks in close pursuit of
woodpeckers and other small birds in an open
field, and in one instance, after witnessing from
the barn-yard a very interesting chase between
the Falco Columbarius and a tame pigeon,

* It is remarkable that a dog accustomed to retrieving ducka
from the water, will give over the chase after a crippled canvass-
back, as soon as he perceives the object of his pursuit is able to
make a long stretch or two beneath the surface. Experience has
taught him that all his skill and sagacity are thrown away, when
brought into competition with this cunning and powerful duck.
The large channel black-heads, or those which frequent the bay,
are almost as long breathed and as deep divers.

244 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

killed the former but a few feet behind the lat-
ter, which, but for the timely rescue, must
inevitably have become its prey.*

Taking out the dogs during the past winter,
they pointed a single crow, which being busily
engaged in digging some object from the ground,
allowed us to come within ten yards of it, al-
though we had a gun in our hands at the time,
which circumstance, gentle reader, while it
rather invalidates the popular notion that the
crow is able to scent powder, shows that the
eye of the bird was fully engaged with the ob-
ject on the ground, and did not in reality see us
or the dogs, until its attention was attracted by
the sound of our approach. The study of the
vision of birds is one of the most beautiful and
interesting departments of natural history ; with
the exception of that of flying, perhaps, the

* When we first noticed the hawk, it was some distance down
the wind in the act of darting upon the pigeon, which it missed.
The pursuit was then continued, both parties beating to windward
by short tacks, the pigeon occasionally putting about with great
adroitness when hard pressed, and gradually nearing the barn, as
the one redoubled its exertions to come up, and the other to escape, —
until when fairly within shot, we decided the matter at the very
moment that the piratical cruiser of air was gaining on the chase,
as the sailors say, hand over hand. The pigeon alit upon the
roof of the barn, and as if sensible of its narrow escape, remained
perfectly quiet for a considerable time.

DUCK SHOOTING. 245

most so of all to the scientific inquirer. When
we reflect that they do not see objects as we do,
but with a magnifying power, which, according
to the adjustment of the focus of the eye, has
been compared to that of the telescope or the
microscope, there is no doubt that in each case
we have related, the eye of the bird was, so to
speak, so filled up with the object on which its
vision, for the time, was earnestly bent, that it
saw adjoining objects but very imperfectly, just
as the falcon has been known to fly in full career
against a tree in pursuit of a partridge, and the
duck, after twice avoiding the men in the boats
near the battery, met its death, at last, over the
decoys which it was so desirous to join.

Taking up some two hundred decoys on a
cold, blustering evening, is rather tedious and
benumbing work to a novice. While one person
manages the oars, the others pick up each duck
singly, so as not to entangle it with its fellows,
and, after winding the cord round its body and
removing the weed from the weight, stow it away
in the bow or stern of the yawl. In the mean-
time the man in the box, laying aside his guns,
secures the few ducks near the wings, turns up
the guards, and as soon as the stools are all in
the boat, weighs the anchors of the battery, and
16

246 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

is towed down to the scow. The contents of the
boats and the box are then passed on board, and
lastly the battery itself; after which sail is made
for home.

On reaching Havre de Grace, we went into
Baird's hotel, where the duck shooters of the
place are in the habit of congregating to talk
over the exploits of the day.*

These men are both fishers and fowlers, being
engaged during the spring and part of the sum-
mer, in the extensive fisheries of the Potomac
and Susquehanna, and returning to their more
congenial occupation in autumn. They are
generally well informed on all matters connected
with their business, — sometimes even acute,
and some of them realize handsome profits in
their hardy and exciting pursuits. They are
almost universally expert shots ; indeed, it is

* While harboring in a creek on the eastern shore, on one of our
excursions, the necks of a fine pair of canvass-backs were eaten off
by a mine, although they "were the only brace in the lot, and had
a number of inferior ducks hung on either side of them. In fact,
old shooters seriously declare that this little animal, which often
swims off at night to the scows in search of plunder, knows the
flavor of a canvass-back, and will never touch a commoner kind of
duck when the former is to be had. Some years ago we were
shown in the store of Mr. Lyons, at Havre de Grace, a large pet
cat which was said to show the same epicurean delicacy of taste
when occasion offered.

DUCK SHOOTING. 247

as common for a man reared on either shore to
shoot well, as it is for a dog in the same sections
to swim and dive like an otter. Many of the
poorer inhabitants train their large dogs not
only to retrieve ducks shot from the shore, but
also to assist in bringing in quantities of drift
wood, which come down the stream with " a
fresh." Some are said to supply themselves
with winter fuel in this way. We remember to
have watched with interest, from the Port De-
posit side, the efforts of a large cur dog to tow in
a fragment of lumber, after which an old negro
had sent him out into the stream. The log was
heavy, some distance out, and the river on the
rise ; for some moments the old fellow was in a
state of great excitement between hope and fear ;
but at last the faithful animal succeeded in get-
ting the wood into the eddy off shore, when
Pompey showing the remains of his teeth in a
tremendous grin, jumped into a shattered and
leaky boat, and sculled off to his aid.

The next morning we anchored the battery on
the eastern shore, between Havre de Grace and
Port, off Stump's MilL The wind was easterly ;
the weather cold and stormy ; and a great many
ducks on the fly down the river. Your ears
were constantly saluted with the rvhew ! whew !

248 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

of the widgeon — the harsh cry of the south-
southerly — the whistling wings of the golden-
eye — the quack of the butter-ball ; and you were
kept constantly on the alert, knocking over can-
vass-backs and red-heads, until near noon, when
the wind increased to a half gale, the battery
went adrift, the scow dragged her anchor almost
at the same moment, while the boat was off,
and for a while, we were, as sailors say, caught
in a h^ap. Giving up the search for the dead
ducks, we pulled might and main for the battery,
while Fred and the boy lifted the scow's anchor,
and hoisting the jib, ran closer in shore. On ap-
proaching the box, we found McCullough stand-
ing knee deep in water, having thrown over-
board all his iron, after driving down through
the decoys. The battery had then brought up,
but the waves were making a clean breach over
the box, and the stools were in a confused state
of entanglement and disarray. Some had been
detached from their weights and were floating
off, or going on to the lee shore to caulk, as Davis
expressed it, tumbling about on the waves as if
in joy of their escape ; others were foul of the
anchors under the frame of the battery, and the
rest in a cumber; while the wind blew stiffly, in
gusts, from the heights of the opposite shore —

DUCK SHOOTING. 249

the river grew every moment more rough, and
the tall frame of McCullough, standing ap-
parently on the water, and actively plying boat-
hook, as he grappled for the anchors, reminded
one strangely enough, in the midst of the scene,
of the picture of Washington crossing a river
on a raft, on his mission to Fort Le Beuf in the
old colonial days. Working hard, it was some
time before we secured the decoys and shipped
the battery, when after taking a bumper of good
old Bourbon all round, we stood over towards
Port, beating, scow-fashion, broadside as often
as bow on. We afterwards heard that Baird
and several other shooters below, had drifted
completely across the swash in their batteries
that morning. No serious accident happened,
and so far as we are informed, no case of drown-
ing ever occurred in the batteries on the Chesa-
peake. The case to which Dr. Lewis refers in
his article on duck shooting, was occasioned by
the sinking of an old yawl, loaded down to the
water's edge with stones, as a substitute for a
battery. She was struck by a sudden flaw of
wind, and, of course, sunk, drowning her occu-
pant, who either from inability to swim, or from
some unexplained cause, went down with her
in eight or nine feet of water.

250 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

Formerly ducks were very abundant on the
western shore between Port Deposit and Havre
de Grace, and great numbers are still killed
from blinds and batteries, from the bridge, down
to Stump's Point at the mouth of Furnace creek.
The digging of the tide-water canal, however,
drove the ducks off the flats and marshes of the
western shore. Below Havre de Grace, on the
western side of the swash, near Donahue's bat-
tery, is good canvass-back and red-head ground.
About half a mile from the battery, to the east-
ward, Mr. Charles Boyd of Havre de Grace,
killed one hundred and sixty-three canvass-
backs, on the tenth day of November last, and
we have been assured that in the spring of
eighteen hundred and fifty, the same famous
duck-shooter killed two hundred and seventy-
one canvass-back, and red-heads off the mouth
of North-East river, three or four miles from
the battery. On the same day on which Boyd
killed his canvass-backs, near Donahue's bat-
tery, Mr. John Holly, another expert duck-shot,
belonging to the same place, killed one hundred
and nineteen of the same species 011 Devil's
Island ; and it is said that several thousand
ducks were brought into the town that day, by
the different parties engaged in shooting on the
flats.

DUCK SHOOTING. 251

The next night we sailed for the Narrows of
Spesutia, where we had some good shooting
from the battery and from points. We were
here much amused with the deportment of
Davis, who seemed to move his eyes as on a
pivot, while watching for ducks behind the
rushes, keeping his head steadily fixed, all
alive as he was, espying, giving notice, and
knocking them down as if born to the business.
He was also at home in sailing and managing
the scow, and for picking out dead ducks from
the yawl in a rough sea, his eyes were not to
be excelled, except perhaps by those of McC.
who, we believe, carried a chart of each duck's
drift in his pocket. While harboring in one
of the creeks of the Narrows, we heard the
distant booming of the swivel guns of the
poachers, who "boat" the sleeping flocks by
moonlight, which mode of killing ducks, though
deservedly executed, has still a spice of adven-
ture in it, and is so far more defensible in our
eyes than the old, cold-blooded practice of
strangling them in the meshes of gill nets, while
diving for food on the shoals.

The whole accursed French system of net-
ting ducks, partridges, and other birds, is well
worthy of its inventors, and although we do not

252 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

wish to be considered uncharitable, we cannot
avoid quoting here two lines of Byron, leaving
the reader to parody if he thinks proper.
Speaking of Sir Isaac Walton, his lordship,
who detested fishing, says :

"The quaint old coxcomb, in his gullet

Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it."

All varieties of the wild duck are less wary,
and possess less intelligence than the Canada
goose. They also evince much less affection
for each other, and we know of no instance of
their being domesticated, except in the case of
the anas sponsa, or beautiful summer duck.
Every fowler has noticed the sort of family in-
terest which exists among the members of a
flock of wild geese, which frequently leads them
to halt, follow the descent, and wait upon the
motions of a wounded companion. We believe
the same traits have been observed in the
American swan. Both are easily domesticated,
but it is remarkable that the tamed wild goose
and even his descendants, although herding by
day with the domestic goose, show a disposition
to sleep apart from the flock at night. We first
noticed this fact on the farm of Mr. Andrew
Lyons, of Cecil, Maryland, and were assured by
that gentleman, that his attention had been fre-

DUCK SHOOTING. 253

quently drawn to the same peculiarity. The
goose is in fact the most wary of wild fowl, not
excepting the swan, with which they are often
seen associated. It is said that the latter bird
will sleep and feed without fear, if surrounded
by the former, the sentinels of which are ever
on the qui vive, and are regularly relieved at
stated periods. They are killed on our shores
over decoys from ambuscades, or by imitating
their honkings as the flocks pass overhead.
They are also shot in stormy weather from
points on the Chesapeake when the wind shuts
them in as they fly up and down the bay.
Many geese and swans have been killed in this
way at Richett's Point, at the mouth of Gun-
powder river.

CANADA GOOSE.

ANAS CANADENSIS.

Description. — " The length of this species is
three feet; extent, five feet two inches; the bill
is black ; irides, dark hazel ; upper half of the
neck, black, marked on the chin and lower part
of the head with a large patch of white, its dis-
tinguishing character; lower part of the neck
before, white ; back and wing-coverts, brown,
each feather tipped with whitish; rump and
tail, black; tail-coverts and vent, white; prima-
ries, black, reaching to the extremities of the
tail ; sides, pale ashy brown ; legs and feet,
blackish ash. The male and female are exactly
alike in plumage."

"The Canada goose," adds Brewer, "is easily
domesticated, and it is probable that most of the
specimens killed in Great Britain have escaped
from preserves; it is found, however, on the
Continent of Europe, and stragglers may occa-
sionally occur. On the beautiful piece of water
at Gasford House, the seat of the Earl of

CANADA GOOSE. 255

Wemyss, Haddingtonshire, this and many other
water birds rear their young freely. I have
never seen any artificial piece of water, so beau-
tifully adapted for the domestication and intro-
duction of every kind of water-fowl which will
bear the climate of Great Britain. Of very
large extent, it is embossed in beautiful shrub-
bery, perfectly recluse, and, even in the nearly
constant observance of a resident family, several
exotic species seem to look upon it as their own.
The Canada and Egyptian geese both had
young when I visited it, and the lovely anas
sponsa (summer duck) seemed as healthy as in
her native waters."

The Potomac, however, is the grand rendezvous
of geese and swans, where they are often seen
in countless multitudes feeding or sanding on
the bars, and are shot from blinds and points.
Great numbers of ducks are also slaughtered
on this river by swivel guns at night. The pad-
dler lies flat on his breast, and the propelling of
the boat in this situation is laborious and dis-
tressing work. A duck shooter once informed
us, that having been paddled for some distance
close to an immense flock of canvass-backs, rid-
ing as at anchor with their heads under their
wings, at the mouth of a creek, he discharged

256 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

his heavy gun in the midst, making tremen-
dous slaughter ; observing that his companion
did not rise from his recumbent position at the
report, he spoke to and touched him, but he did
not answer or stir ; and upon turning him up
and looking in his face, he perceived that he
was dead. The man, probably, had some
organic disease of the heart.

Although the men of the Chesapeake scruple
not to aver that we have no wild fowl shooting
worthy of the name, on the Delaware, for all
that, as we sit in our sanctum, we seem to see,
with prophetic eye, a host of grizzled, weather-
beaten faces ready to start up, amid a terrible
quacking and honking, to tell them a different
tale. In fact, it is upon the Delaware, that the
greatest skill and fertility of stratagem are
brought into play, in paddling to the best ad-
vantage upon the watchful mallard, (arias
boschas) — the wary black duck, (anas obsura)
— the shy sprig-tail, (anas acuta) — the swift
butter-ball or buffel-headed duck, (anas albeola)
— the lively blue-bill or scaup duck, (anas
marilla) — the restless south-southerly, (anas
glacialis) — the delicate little teal of either va-
riety, and many others. Until the sportsman
has laid his ear, as it \vere, to the light ripple

CANADA GOOSE. 257

at the bow of his skiff, as propelled by the prac-
tised hand of the paddler, she goes gliding on
to the wary fowl, — and has waited in breathless
suspense for the significant touch, which bids
him rise and deliver his tire in the midst of the
startled rank, — and after boating the dead and
wounded, has re-loaded the big gun and again
stretched to his oars; or until he has floated
down in his whitened skiff among the drifting
ice, within raking distance of the flock, or, per-
haps, close to the snow-cake where the ducks
set huddled in the sun — until he has done this,
he has by no means fathomed all the sweet mys-
teries of fowl shooting, although he may have
annually killed countless scores of nobler game,
from the floating batteries, or the famous point-
preserves of the Chesapeake.

How often has the fowler on the Delaware
had occasion to remark, that the single circum-
stance of the drift of the disguised skiff, being
greater than that of the masses of ice among
which it floats, has alarmed the wary geese on
which he was stealing with the tide, assisted by
an almost imperceptible motion of the paddle,
and how often, after having unshipped his oars,
arid laid himself flat on his face in his floating
ambuscade, has he been disappointed of a glori-

253 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

ous shot, by the untimely presence of a single
black-duck among a flock of mallards or teal.
Again, on the other hand, how often, after hav-
ing arranged his reserved guns, and taken a last
look at the locks of his long torn, has he been
paddled by the cunning hand of a Wilson, a
Stinsman, an Everly or a Conner, under the
cover of some sinuosity in the shore, into the
very midst of a flock of sprig-tails, feeding on
the edge of a flat, at the bottom of some unfre-
quented cove ; and rising with mischief in his
heart, has poured the contents of the deadly
barrels in the thick of the affrighted game,
which, as if appalled at the sudden ap-
pearance of their enemy, cluster confusedly to-
gether as they rise : or early in October, how
often has he dropped down the river on some
clear, moonlight night, to set his stools, by the
first glimmer of dawn, on the upper end of Tini-
cum or Maiden islands, or upon Martin's or
Smith's bars, or some equally faArorable spot for
the flight of the dusky duck, or the blue-winged
teal. Having hidden the skiff on the reedy
marsh, and heard the whir and rvhiz of passing
wings before it was yet sufficiently light to
shoot, as day breaks and the stools are more dis-
tinctly seen riding on the misty tide, with a

CANADA GOOSE. 259

beating heart he beholds a large flock of teal
drop as if from the clouds among the rank, and
at once raking them where they sit in the
thickest cluster, discharges his second barrel
with deadly effect as they rise. After this, per-
haps, as the sky grows still clearer, looking
towards the eastern horizon, he sees just above
the rising sun a small black cloud no bigger
than his hand; as he looks it becomes appa-
rently larger, when not daring to move hand or
foot or even an eyelid, he lies close as death
itself; with his finger on the guard, waiting for
the instant to fire at the ranks of the dusky duck.
If the morning be still and calm they will most
probably soar too high for his piece; but, perhaps,
the winds blow a half a gale over the troubled
expanse of water and the decaying herbage of
the shore ; in that case they will stool or fly
low, and if he shoots at the proper moment, be
almost certain to pay toll. A little later in the
morning, while sailing up the river towards the
New Bar — the ducks having ceased to stool
below — the shooter espies some dark object
moving on the edge of the marshy shore ; ex-
amined with a spy-glass, it proves to be a little
blue-winged teal apparently playing in circles
on the water ; the mast is instantly struck ;

260 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

upon looking again, perhaps, a second bird is
seen engaged in the same playful manoeuvres ;
and a few yards further up on the mud, close to
the reeds or spatter-docks, the whole flock is
discovered sitting in close companionship in the
sun. They are probably fast asleep ; the out-
siders carelessly swimming on the water are the
sentries; and to approach the flock without
alarming these, is the point. In this case, the
shooter either lands at a distance and pushes
the skiff before him over the flat, concealing
himself as much as possible behind her, and
thus silently and laboriously works within shot ;
or trusting to the skill of the paddler, he lies
close in the boat, which is slowly and stealthily
propelled in the direction of the game, until,
perhaps, a distance not exceeding the point
blank range of an ordinary fowling piece is
attained, and death descends in a leaden
shower on the sleepers, whom the sports of
their heedless companions have betrayed. In
fact, though shooting from the battery is suffi-
ciently exciting, when the game comes fast to
the decoys, it cannot compare in point of ad-
venture and interest with paddle shooting as
practised on the Delaware.

We have, indeed, spent many a joyous hour,

CANADA GOOSE. 261

blazing away from the ambuscade at the noble
ducks of the Chesapeake ; or lying in the Sus-
quehanna, with Port Deposit and its heights in
sight, listening to the lip-lap of the slight surge
at our ears — or, perhaps, watching the curious
little water- witch,* as she suddenly emerged
among the stools, swimming warily round and
round the battery, as if sent out on a reconnoi-
tering excursion from a rank of canvass-backs,
which rode the ripples at a distance off Mount
Ararat ;f — but for all this, we shall never know
again the supreme delight with which we bent
to our oars among the drifting masses of ice and
snow, and listened to the " bald, disjointed chat"
of the paddler, on some sunny, mid-winter's
morn; or suspended stroke as his experienced
eye caught some dark object on the ice, which
the glass revealed to be a flock of sprig-tails
basking in the sun ; or examined the guns, and
laid us down to drift on in silent expectancy
only broken by the wary whispers of our com-
panion— the caw of some hungry crow, or the
thump of a passing cake on the skiff's bow ; or
started up at his signal to deal death and con-
sternation among the affrighted objects of our

* Pied-bill Dob-chick — Podiceps Carolinensis.
f A height so called near Port Deposit.

17

262 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

aim, and rejoicing in the sport, boated the birds,
re-loaded the guns, and again stretched away to
the oars to keep the brisk blood in full flow :
gentle reader there is a rare pleasure in this,
which the thirst for preference, or the absorbing
desire of gain never can bestow — a pleasure with
which the most successful day's shooting from
the battery, can never compare. Much skill and
presence of mind are, however, required in box-
shooting, and we would advise every sportsman
who has never been placed in this peculiar posi-
tion, to give it a trial for once. He need not be
concerned if unprovided with a life-preserver,
since in spite of their serious recommendation
by a recent writer, we assure him that the dan-
ger is less than that which every mortal expe-
riences, in crossing the Delaware in a ferry
boat.

To those who have leisure and a desire to
engage in paddle-shooting, we say go to Krider's
and select one of his splendid double ducking
guns ; purchase a good skiff writh her appurte-
nances complete ; hire an expert paddler, and
our word for it, you will find the sport one of the
most invigorating and delightful recreations in
the world. The agreeable change of element —
the pleasurable thrill which almost every one

CANADA GOOSE. 263

feels afloat — the healthful exercise in the bracing
air — the extent of prospect, and the lurking de-
sire for burning friar Bacon's astounding com-
pound in something of a little larger calibre than
your snipe gun, are amply sufficient to drive oif
ennui, malaise, or any other moping malady
with a French name, which fashionable flesh is
heir to. Besides this, you have the wary game
ahead, and that argus-eyed, grizzly-pated mortal
astern, with stores and stores of fowling experi-
ence under his wild and weather-beaten front, if
so you have tact enough to draw him out. It is
rather superfluous, to say nothing of savoring a
little of self-conceit, for some sporting writers of
the day to expatiate at such remarkable length,
on the dreadful hardships and direful dangers of
duck-shooting. . .

To listen to such hyperborean arguments as
" pelting rains," "driving snows," "whistling
winds," and "freezing waters," — followed up by
"wardrobes of water-proof coats," "legions of
stout hearts," and "life preservers;" one would
almost suppose that they were bound on a cruise
to Nova Zembla, or the North Pole ; whereas all
this; comical parade of old winter's icy attributes
shrinks into mere verbiage, when compared with
the exulting sense of the real thing itself. Give

264 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

us, gentlemen, all your experience in shooting ;
initiate us a little into the mystery of those fasci-
nating pursuits, which possess such seductive
charms for one-third of mankind ; but, for mercy
sake, do not frighten us tyros, ye old campaigners,
with ominous hints of undivulged but awful ex-
posures— piteous descriptions of over-night double
B tricks upon travellers, the mere thoughts of
which are enough to make one's blood creep.
The truth is, there is no sport, with which we
are acquainted, better adapted to set up mind
and bod\r, and we know of more lives than one
saved by paddle-shooting on the Delaware.

On the flats canvass-backs may be distin-
guished from other ducks by their incessant
diving, and in the air they are known by the
wedge-like shape which the flock assumes, and
the superior altitude of their flight to and from
the feeding grounds. The shooters on the
Chesapeake recognize them with the naked eye
a great distance. We were assured by a
veteran sportsman that, under the cover of the
long, thick grass which covers a large portion
of the island of Spesutia, he was once enabled
to approach, on the leeward shore, within fifty
yards of a large flock composed entirely of this
noble wild fowl. He described them as wholly

CANADA GOOSE. 265

unsuspicious of his proximity on the point,
being constantly engaged in diving and re-
appearing, while the water around was mud-
died and strewn with blades of grass, which
they had torn up from the shoal. With the ex-
ception of an occasional squabble when one
individual endeavored to rob another of its prize,
they were very silent; but had there been a
number of widgeons or red-heads among them,
our informant supposed the harmony of the feast
had been more frequently disturbed. Occasion-
ally an old duck raised its body on the water,
and seemed to look warily around ; then, as
another came up beside it, the former took its
turn at diving, so that the whole flock was never
at one moment beneath the surface. On the in-
ner edge of the rank, between it and the shore, a
pair of little buffel-headed ducks were feeding
on the floating grass, but seemed careful in their
motions not to come in contact with the larger
species.

The canvass-back and the red-head breed far
to the north. The nest of the former, it is said,
has been found in upper California, and upon
the banks and marshes of various streams of the
Rocky Mountains. They appear in the Chesa-
peake towards the latter part of October, and

266 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

about this period a few stragglers are occasionally
met with in the Delaware We have, ourselves,
been paddled within gunshot of single indivi-
duals of the former variety, near the old locality
mentioned by Wilson, between Red Bank and
Gloucester Point. Large numbers are killed by
the men of Havre de Grace on their first day's
excursion ; they are then, however, compara-
tively thin and tasteless, but soon begin to im-
prove in condition by feeding upon the valisi-
neria, which gives the true epicurean flavor to
their flesh. The immense multitudes, which,
in Wilson's time, covered acres and acres of the
Susquehanna, and produced a noise resembling
thunder as they rose in a body, are no longer
seen ; occasionally they are observed in the dis-
tance, darkening a portion of the sky, in a man-
ner which recalls the descriptions of departed
days ; but there is little doubt that from local
causes, the number of the choicest ducks which
visit these waters are decreasing year after year.
Among these causes may be mentioned the in-
troduction of steam navigation, the relative
changes which are taking place on the shores of
the river and bay, consequent upon an increase
of population and trade, and the annoyances to
which the ducks are subjected, from the opera-

CANADA GOOSE. 267

tions of the batteries on the feeding grounds.
It is not their entire extinction as a species which
is to be apprehended at the present day, breed-
ing so prolifically as they do in the desolate and
solitary regions of the north ; indeed many years
may elapse before they are even driven from the
flats, on which their favorite food in such pro-
fusion abounds ; in the growing dislike of the
democracy of the land to aught in the shape of
restrictive game laws, it is not very probable that
the honorable legislators of Maryland can be
brought to look so far into futurity, as to provide
acts by which wild fowl — especially canvass-
backs — may be allowed to take their food in
peace ; in the meantime, gentlemen will shoot,
and professionals strain every nerve to keep the
market supplied, while posterity must look out
for itself; consequently, every year the firing
from point, blind and battery is redoubled, and
every year the voice of remonstrance from those
citizens, who would fain see something done in
the season, to preserve this noble American
duck from being driven entirely from the waters
of the state, becomes less and less distinct.

Shooting from the points or bars, over which
the ducks fly on their way to the flats, is claimed
by many as the only sportsmanlike and legiti-

268 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

mate mode of killing canvass- backs. For our-
selves, the sport is not much to our taste. We
had much rather be paddled on the flocks, not
with a ton of iron in the bow. but a sizeable gun,

7 O '

such as a man may readily handle and kill his
ducks with at sixty or eighty yards. But as
this would be equally objectionable with the
sunken batteries, of course it would not be tole-
rated if the latter were once put down. If the
ducks are thick on a fly and come well up to the
point, no doubt they afford considerable amuse-
ment for a short time, and require some little
knowledge in the art of shooting, to strike them
to the best effect in their rapid and rushing
course. The sigbt of a falling duck thus stop-
ped and precipitated from a vast height, is said
to be a fine sight, provided you are cool enough
to enjoy it in the thick of the thing, when no-
thing but loading and firing a la mode is the
order of the hour.

The singular process of tolling, which was the
most successful of all the modes of killing can-
vass-backs in the time of Wilson, when the
ducks were not only much more numerous, but
fed closer to the shore, is now comparatively
little resorted to, except on Bush and Gunpow-
der rivers, and only for a few weeks in the early

CANADA GOOSE. 269

part of the season. The celebrated naturalist
just named, mentions a curious fact connected
with the history of this duck, which shows how
strong is its partiality for that particular species
of grass, on which it comes annually, so many
hundreds of leagues to feed.

" In the severe winter of seventeen hundred
and seventy-nine and eighty," he says, " the
grass, on the roots of which these birds feed, was
almost wholly destroyed in the James river. In
the month of January, the wind continued to
blow from W. N. W. for twenty-one days,
which caused such low tides in the river, that
the grass froze to the ice every where, and, a
thaw coming on suddenly, the whole was raised
by the roots and carried off by a fresh. The
next winter a few of these ducks were seen, but
they soon went away again; and, for many
years after, they continued to be scarce;. and,
even to the present 'day, in the opinion of
my informant, have never 'been as plenty as
before."

The canvass-back seldom wanders far along
the course of the rivers which empty into the
Chesapeake, but the red-head, although delight-
ing also in the head-waters of the bay, is often
shot a considerable distance up the Susquehanna.

270 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

Freshets, to which the shallow waters of the
river are constantly liable, drive the ducks, for
the time, into the lower bay, where they feed
upon eel-grass, small fish, and scaup. Very
severe weather reduces them to great extremities,
by freezing the water over the flats, and cutting
them off from the celery grass. Advantage is
sometimes taken of this by the shooters, who cut
large holes in the ice over the shoals, and firing
from an ambuscade at the ducks which eagerly
congregate around these spots, commit terrible
havoc. They dart well to the decoys in a snow-
storm, indifferently in a calm, or when the wind
and tide are contrary, and always best in the
early part of the da}'-, and an hour or two before
sunset.

Their nights are much regulated by the state
of wind and weather, and it is said that some
shooters, by paying close attention to the signs,
will go out after sunrise, and, selecting a judicious
position for their batteries, often kill more ducks
in a few hours, than those who have been astir
long before the first glimmer of dawn. This is
remarked especially of the Boyds of Havre de
Grace, one brother of the two being noted for
his judgment in placing the box, and the other
for his skill in levelling the ducks.

O

CANADA GOOSE. 271

It is now known that in their southern migra-
tions, canvass-backs, to a certain extent, follow
the line of the coast, having been seen in great
numbers, according to Dr. Lewis, as far south as
Galveston Bay.

About the first of April, sooner or later, ac-
cording to the nature of the season, the ducks
are observed to collect in great flocks, and after
sweeping round and round the feeding grounds,
to ascend to a vast height, and thence direct
their flight due north. Previous to this every
individual has visited the shores or bars, and
filled its gizzard with sand, in order, as we sup-
pose, to prevent a collapse of this organ during
their long journeys through the air. Small
squads of canvass-backs have been seen in the
vicinity of Spesutia as late as the middle of July.
These, of course, were composed of individuals
crippled by the shooters and rendered unable to
migrate.

PIGEON-MATCH SHOOTING.

Club pigeon-matches appear to have gone out
of date in Philadelphia, though public and
private matches are still common. We hear
now, however, of the existence of no such clubs
as were accustomed, formerly to meet once a
week at Heft's and elsewhere. The Philadel-
phia Sporting Club, which was formed some
years ago exclusively of Krider's customers, is
defunct, and all attempts to revive it have as
yet proved ineffectual. If we ask where are the
hearts who once shone on the shooting ground,
and at the jovial board, and were the leaders
in many a mad prank, a voice, very like that
of the venerable foreman of the establishment,
answers hollowly as a ghost ; " some abroad —
some in their graves — some metamorphosed
into careful men of business — some, like myself,
white with the frosts of years, and ' wrinkled
deep in time.' ' Nevertheless the old fellow,
who has lived to become one of the fixtures of
the place, is still hale and hearty, and may yet

PIGEON-MATCH SHOOTING. 273

survive some of us representatives of the rising
generation.

Many of the private matches of the day have
emanated from Krider's, and at some of these
we have witnessed shooting, which might com-
pare favorably with the exploits at the Old Hats,
the Red House or any other ancient place of
meeting for the English Sporting Clubs. The

late Mr. S n was a celebrated pigeon shot.

Messrs. F. G. and C. J. Wolbert, Jr., Major Flom-
merfelt, Dr. Sartori, and many others are also
very sure. Of the professed shooters, Mr. D.
Wills is perhaps the best in the state, either at
single or double birds. The spring-trap is now
comparatively little used; being considered by
practised pigeon shooters to give the bird too
little chance of escape. At the public matches,
some of the old rules still in force are objec-
tionable, and often give rise to dispute. The
charges should always be limited to an ounce
and a half of shot, which throws ducking-guns
and demi-rakers out of play, and places all bar-
rels of a moderate guage on a par. The judge
should also examine the birds to be shot at, be-
fore the match begins, and reject all such as are
not strong and well fledged. Such as still have
the squab-cry should never be allowed to any

274 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

shooter, good, bad, or indifferent. We have seen
a bird adjudged to a fellow who had over-shot it,
entirely because it had been gathered within the
bounds, solely from its inability to fly out of them.
It would be well if one person should have the
handling and gathering of the birds. He should
also pull the string of the trap, and should be ap-
pointed by the judge on the ground. The latter
should always ask the shooter if he is ready,
and upon being answered in the affirmative,
should, himself, give the word to the runner to
let the bird fly. The runner should not stir to
gather a bird until ordered by the judge. In a
doubtful case, the direct distance should be mea-
sured by the judge with a graduated line, and in
doing this he may be assisted by the person who
gathers the birds. No person except the arbiter
and the runner, should be allowed to address or
stand within ten feet of the shooter, after he has
taken his post, and, of course, the shooter should
heel the mark and keep the butt of his gun
down until the birds rise. If a bird refuses to
fly after a trap is sprung, the shooter should
wait two minutes by the watch of the judge ; he
should then hand his gun to the runner to shoot
the bird on the ground, and a second bird should
be placed in the trap, as soon as the same marks-

PIGEON-MATCH SHOOTIXG. 275

man is prepared to shoot. No bird should be
placed in the trap, until it is distinctly ascer-
tained by the arbiter that the shooter is ready
to take his stand, and every bird should be
placed with its head from the crowd. If the
judge has any doubts about a bird gathered
within the bounds, he should examine the bird
himself, and give his opinion accordingly. The
shooters should each charge their guns under the
inspection of the judge, as soon as their names
have been called by lottery. In gathering a
bird, the person appointed may go outside of it,
but he should on no account be allowed to strike
it with a missle of any kind. If it should alight
on a tree within the bounds, he may climb the
tree or send up a boy for the purpose, but the
bird, to count on the score in favor of the shooter,
must be fairly gathered with the hands. If a
bird walk from the trap and away from the
shooter, within the two minutes assigned, he may
advance or not at the discretion of the judge,
who should, however, always endeavor to pre-
serve the relative distance of the shooter and the
mark. No missies should be thrown on the
bird's refusing to rise, except at the order of the
judge. His decision in all cases should be de-
cisive on the ground. The ties should be shot

276 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

off, alternately, bird for bird, unless some previ-
ous arrangement should exist among the shooters.
All dogs and outsiders should be warned without
the bounds, before the shooting commences, and
if, in the opinion of the judge, a shooter is any
way interfered with, he must be allowed another
bird. There may be one or two judges ap-
pointed by the makers of the match, though it is
better in our opinion to have but one. Eighty
yards limit and twenty-one yards rise for single
birds, with fifteen for double, are the usual dis-
tances in this country, though we believe the
rules of the old English clubs allowed twenty
yards more to the bounds. It appears to us that
in private matches with double birds, two traps
should be used, placed at least five yards apart.
This would lessen the liability of both birds being
killed by one barrel, and spring-traps being used
in this case, and sprung precisely at the same
moment, would give fair double shots to each
shooter, and bring his skill more decidedly into
play, as the pith of the sport consists in the
strength with which the birds fly. The passen-
ger pigeon (Columba migratoria) has been fre-
quently shot from traps in this country, and when
not disabled by confinement, affords excellent
sport. It flies very swiftly, and, in general,

PIGEON-MATCH SHOOTING. 277

straight from the trap, and cannot be brought
down unless covered immediately. They should,
however, be used for this purpose as soon as
possible after being netted, as they soon beat
themselves to pieces in captivity.

The English wire cartridges, which have
been used to a considerable extent in pigeon
matches abroad, have not obtained much favor
in this country. We have never used them
either in matches or in duck shooting. Shot
cartridges, however, are held in little esteem by
the duck shooters of the Chesapeake.

13

FIELD DOGS.

BLENDING OF STOCKS.

We shall confine our remarks concerning the
mixed breed, to the pointer and setter, reserving
a regular treatise upon the sporting dogs of
America for some future occasion. We could
heartily wish that a period should be put to the
practice of crossing these two varieties, at least
for the present. It has so extensively prevailed
among us, that comparatively few dogs of pure
stock are now to be had, and both products of
the cross have degenerated to a certain extent.

For the pointer, we doubt if, as a rule, his
professional qualities have been improved by his
relationship either with the setter or the fox-
hound. An uncommonly fine animal does oc-
casionally occur, but the instances are few and
far between. The same remark may be made
of the setter. Indeed, as far as our experience
serves us, for one really good dog of the mixed
breed, we have seen, perhaps, twenty, which
were entirely worthless, or showed something
outre and malapropos in their conduct in the

FIELD DOGS. 279

field. If the setter gains any thing in steadi-
ness by his relations-hip to the pointer, he loses
in beauty, range and dash; while the pointer's
style of quartering his ground is often lost in
the cross, degenerating into a loping, desultory
gallop, like that of a wolf.

The setter, too, loses much of his symmetry
and feathery elegance of form, and the pointer
of his clean, thorough-bred air and astute look.
Both are less easily subjected to discipline, and
less reliable than dogs of pure stock. A pro-
pensity to hunt in a line, to rake, and crouch
on their game, are also observed in the mixed
breed. Besides they are apt to prove wilful
and unsteady, especially in company with
strange dogs ; you will find them behaving tole-
rably well to-day, and as wild as runaway
mules to-morrow.

An acquaintance of ours has now in his pos-
session a smooth dog of the mixed breed, whose
eccentricities in the field set all calculations on
his day's performance at defiance. A wide
ranger, he is seen standing snipe at a great dis-
tance, sometimes steadily enough, but more fre-
quently doing mischief, not by actually driving
the game up, but by becoming restless and im-
patient on his point, now advancing a length or

KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

two as the bird moves from him, and now work-
ing round it, fidgeting in a -very annoying way,
until, ten chances to one, just as the shooter is
hurrying breathlessly up, the bird springs and
the shot is lost. Hunting always as if he were
running a steeple-chase, in company with other
dogs he often refuses to back, and has been
known to dash in and flush rather than play
second fiddle. When the spirit of evil has once
fairly entered into him, no severity of correc-
tion has the slightest effect in restraining the
fiend within him, and he will chase, race, yelp,
mouth birds, and worry cattle like a very devil
incarnate. And yet the very day previous, per-
haps, he has been moderately steady. This dog
is now five years old, he has been reared in the
country, had the advantage of being taken out
almost every day, and at the present time is not
a whit more to be relied upon.

How advantageously does the purely bred
pointer or setter contrast with an individual of
caste like the specimen just mentioned, and
what a deal of mischief such an animal may
create, even among the most staunch and
amenable dogs !

As the practice is chiefly countenanced by
men who have dogs for sale, we would respect-

FIELD DOGS. 281

fully recommend our readers, as a rule, never
to purchase a dog of mixed stock. The diffi-
culty of breaking him, united with his natural
wilfulness, — which is never entirely subdued, —
is one 'main reason why so many inferior dogs
are forced into the field. We should, always
remember that the nearer the animal approaches
to purity of blood, the nobler are its attributes.
The apprehension and instincts of the latter are
more clearly defined, and of a higher order than
those of the commingled breed, in which the
qualities of the thorough-bred pointer and setter
seem to be partly obliterated and partly con-
founded together, so to speak, in a very uncompro-
mising and unsatisfactory degree. But on this
head we have said enough for the present, and
with a few words on the rearing of the young
pointer and setter shall conclude.

Having procured a healthy puppy of either
stock as pure as can be obtained, send him by
all means to the country until he has attained
his majority, if the thing can be done with any
degree of convenience. The advantage in this
is manifested in the growth and good looks of
the animal, and his almost total exemption from
disease. A puppy, which is allowed to run in
the fields once or twice a day, to empty himself,

282 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

cleanse his coat, and bite off the tops of grasses,
seldom suffers from distemper, and generally
thrives remarkably well on a less allowance of
feed than the city bred dog. In fact the latter
is often left chained, or otherwise confined to
the same spot, exposed to noxious animal exha-
lations for days and weeks together, on the sup-
position that as long as he is kept crammed
until his stomach protrudes beyond his sides
like a pudding-bag, nothing further is required ;
and when worms, the distemper, mange, con-
vulsions, the ricketts, or some other diabolical
complaint has fastened upon him, the owner
apostrophizes his fortune, and determines to rear
no more young dogs. In this last resolution
he is wise, and if willing to pay a fair price —
say from seventy -five to a hundred dollars for a
well-broken dog, is undoubtedly a gainer in the
end, inasmuch as the risk and trouble attending
the rearing of a puppy, is well worth the diffe-
rence in price between the two.' When, how-
ever, you attempt to bring up a dog in the city,
the rules to be observed are few and easily. re-
membered.

The animal should be kept, if possible, in a
stable, coach-house, or some substitute for a
kennel, where he will not be cramped in his

FIELD DOGS. 283

motions by the chain, or exposed to damp exha-
lations and cold draughts of air. From the
time he is weaned, he should be moderately fed
twice a day on bread and milk, broth, or stale
bread soaked in gravy, and occasionally with a
small portion of flesh, chopped fine. If you do
not observe this last direction, you will have
trouble at the outset, for a morsel that a puppy
will greedily bolt, often passes undigested
through the lower orifice of the stomach, and
lodging in some portion of the intestinal canal,
defies all attempts to dislodge it for several
days. During this time the dog suffers excru-
ciating pain, and after relief is obtained by ad-
ministration of active purges and clysters, his
constitution remains seriously affected.

Most probably, however, the first untoward
symptoms which are noticed are- those which
indicate the presence of worms' in the stomach
and intestines, and in these cases we have
found common table salt regularly administered
in milk, to be the most safe and effectual
remedy. It is also beneficial in convulsions
arising from distemper, or from tanial affections;
a small tea-spoonful introduced into the mouth
often having the effect of putting a period to
the paroxysm. The distemper shows itself by

284 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

various symptoms, the first and most decisive of
which are a short, dry cough and a slight dis-
charge from the nose and eyes, conjoined with
the decline of appetite, loss of spirits, and indis-
position to move about. For an elaborate ac-
count of the treatment of this terrible scourge
to the canine race, we refer the reader to Youatt
and Blaine, or advise him, if convenient, to call
on Dr. Evans of Buckley street, Philadelphia.

Cases of common mange are to be treated
with preparations of sulphur, and change of
diet. The following formulae, copied from
Blaine, are said to be very effectual in the com-
mon varieties of mange.

" No. I. Powdered sulphur, yellow or black,
four ounces. Muriate of ammonia (sal ammo-
niac, crude), powdered, half an ounce. Aloes
powdered, one drachm. Venice turpentine,
half an ounce. Lard, or other fatty matter,
six ounces. Mix.

" No. II. Sulphate of zinc (white vitriol), one
drachm. Tobacco in powder, half an ounce.
Sulphur in powder, four ounces. Aloes in pow-
der, two drachms. Soft soap, six ounces.

" No. III. Lime water, four ounces. Decoc-
tion of stavesacre, two ounces. Decoction of
white hellebore, two ounces. Oxymuriate of

FIELD DOGS. 285

quicksilver (corrosive sublimate), five grains.
Dissolve the corrosive sublimate in the decoctions,
which should be of a moderate strength ; when
dissolved, add two drachms of powdered .aloes,
to render the mixture nauseous, and prevent its
being licked off by the dog, which ought to be
carefully guarded against. The best means for
this purpose is a muzzle, having a very fine
wire capping or mouth-piece, which will effec-
tually prevent the dog from getting his tongue
to the ointment, which would prove his almost
certain destruction. When therefore the appli-
cation contains mercury, tobacco, hellebore, or
other active poison, it is recommended not
to depend wholly on the bitter of the aloes as a
preventive to licking, but to apply an effective
muzzle. Instead of muzzling, we have now
and then sewed him up altogether in a dress;
but even then he must be watched, that he does
not gnaw it off; if the dog be much valued, a
muzzle of the kind described is therefore the
best preventive.

"For the cure of red mange, to either of the
recipes, I. or II. add an ounce of strong mercu-
rial ointment, and use as already directed ; but
it will be prudent to carefully watch the dog,
that salivation may not come on. Should this,

236 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES.

however, unexpectedly occur, suspend the use
of the ointment until the salivation disappears;
when the treatment should be resumed and
persisted in until all appearances of the aifection
vanish."

In conclusion, it is well to remember that in
order that your dog may thrive, it is advisable
that clean water should always be within his
reach, and that he should be bedded every eve-
ning in a litter of clean straw. .

JOHN KRIDER,

MANUFACTURER OF

SHOT GUNS, RIFLES AND PISTOLS,

ALSO, IMPOETER OP

GUNS AND ALL SPORTING APPARATUS,
F1SHIXG TACKLE ASD FIXE CUTLERY,

N. E. COKNER OF SECOND AND WALNUT STS.,
PHILADELPHIA.

Southern and western merchants, the city and country trade
in general, can be furnished with a full assortment of every
article in this line of business, on as reasonable terms as by any
other house in the city.

From long experience as a practical Gun maker, I feel myself
competent to furnish the trade and the sporting community with

GUNS.

. Double and single, of my own make, and imported from the
best London and Birmingham makers of the present day. Com-
mon German Guns, of all descriptions and sizes. Also, Cane
Guns, with and without butts.

RIFLES.

Double and single, of all descriptions and prices, steel and
iron barrels, and made suitable for shooting all kinds of game ;
manufactured and sold wholesale to country dealers and western
merchants.

288 ADVERTISEMENT.

PISTOLS

Of all varieties, always on band; such as Colt's, Allen's,
Sprague & Marston's, Massachusetts Arms Company's, Whit-
ney's and English Revolving Pistols, of all sizes. Allen's sin-
gle barrel, self-cocking Pistols, of different sizes. Parlor, Sa-
loon, or Ladies' Pistols. Duelling, Armstrong and Belt Pistols
made to order. Repairs done to all kinds of firearms and
sporting apparatus, in the neatest and best style, and in the
quickest possible time.

POWDER FLASKS.

A first rate assortment of Hawksley's and Dixon & Son's
make, varying from one ounce to one pound, with and without
cords, patent fine proof chargers, and common and patent tops,
of all prices.

SHOT POUCHES

Of Hawksley's best make, Dixon & Son's patent knuckle
charger; also, lever chargers of different patterns and prices.
A large assortment of Shot Bags of various shapes and chargers,
of American manufacture, suitable for field sports and duck
shooting.

A large quantity of American and imported Game Bags, of
all patterns and sizes.

DRINKING- FLASKS.

Hawksley's, Dixon & Son's hog-skin covered, with and with-
out cups ; besides a large assortment of French and German
wicker-covered of a cheaper kind, from one drachm to a quart ;
also, a supply of patent leather Drinking Cups.

ADVERTISEMENT. 289

GUNPOWDER.

A large assortment of Hazard's American Sporting, Indian
Rifle, Kentucky Rifle ; Nos. 1, 2 and 3 Ducking Powder, put
up in one • pound canisters, and six and a quarter pound kegs.
Garasche's and Dupont's Sporting Powder, of various qualities
and prices, put up in one pound canisters, six and a quarter,
twelve and a half, or twenty-five pound kegs, sold wholesale to
country dealers; also, Curtis & Harvey's English Diamond
Grain Powder, of all sizes, imported by Brough, of New York.

GUN WADS.

Eley's concaved felt, chemically prepared cloth, and metallic
Wads for cleansing guns ; also, Baldwin's elastic paper Wads.

SHOT

Of all sizes, from No. 12 to T ; Buckshot of all sizes ; Bullets
from 16 to 200, of Spark's make, always on hand, wholesale
and retail ; also, a constant supply of Bar Lead.

PERCUSSION CAPS

In great variety. Eley's double water-proof, metal lined, ground
edge, and other qualities of Eley's make. R. Walker's best
ground edge; also, cheaper kinds of his make. S. Walker's
best make. Cox's ground edge, water-proof, and all other qua-
lities of his make. Gardner's double water-proof, and all his
various kinds. French Caps; plain and split. G. D. Caps,
ribbed and split. S. B. Caps, plain and ribbed ; besides a large
assortment of American made Caps, for United States rifles and
muskets.

ELEY'S PATENT WIRE CARTRIDGES

Of assorted sizes of shot ; also, plain Paper Cartridges, for rail
and duck shooting, manufactured by myself, suitable for ail
guages of guns.

290 ADVERTISEMENT.

MISCELLANEOUS.
CLEANING- RODS, with implements complete.
NIPPLE WRENCHES and SCREW-DRIVERS, of various

forms.

SHOT CHARGERS, both brass and steel, of different sizes.
DOG COLLARS, German silver, brass, steel, fancy leather,

with plates of German silver or brass, and Coupling Chains,

for pairing dogs.

DOG CHAINS, of assorted sizes.
DOG CALLS, of various descriptions.
DOG WHIPS, assorted.
HOLSTERS, for Colt's and Allen's revolvers.
GUN CASES made to order at the shortest notice.
RIFLE BARRELS, all lengths, weights and guages.
CAST-STEEL BARRELS made to order.
GERMAN SILVER, BRASS and MALLEABLE IRON.
GUN MOUNTING, in the rough or finished.
CAP PRIMERS, of various qualities.
SHOT CHARGER and POWDER FLASK SPRINGS.
MUSKET, RIFLE and PISTOL FLINTS.
HAND VICES.

WAD CUTTERS, assorted from 7 to 60.
BULLET MOULDS, assorted from 16 to 200.
GERMAN SILVER and CAST IRON SIGHTS.
GERMAN SILVER ORNAMENTS for shot guns, rifles and

pistols.
RAMROD HEADS, German silver, iron and brass, solid and

open.

GUN WORMS and RIFLE WIPERS of all kinds.
SCREWS suitable for all kinds of gun work.
TUMBLERS, TUMBLER PINS, MAIN SPRINGS, SEER

SPRINGS, SEERS, TRIGGERS, TRIGGER PLATES,

and BREAK-OFFS.

ADVERTISEMENT. 291

PATENT BREECHES, double and single, of different sizes.

SIDE PINS, BREECH PINS, BOLT LOOPS, WIRE
LOOPS, SWIVEL and BOLTS.

PLUGS and NIPPLES, finished; also, American forged
PLUGS.

FORGED GUN and PISTOL COCKS of every size.

PERCUSSION LOCKS of every description, for shot guns,
rifles and pistols.

FLINT LOCKS for common rifles.

CANE GUN PISTOLS in the rough.

GUN NIPPLES of all varieties and sizes.

OIL BOTTLES, TINDER BOXES, PORTE MONNAIES
and SEGAR CASES of different patterns.

PADLOCKS, assorted sizes.

CORK-SCREWS, KEY RINGS and COMPASSES of diffe-
rent descriptions.

CUTLERY.— Rogers & Son's and Wostenholm's best Cutlery,
consisting of Sporting, Hunting, Pocket and Bowie Knives,
in great variety. Also, Razors, Scissors, &c. &c. &c.

FISHING TACKLE.

HOOKS. — Genuine Limerick Salmon Hooks; best Limerick
Trout Hooks ; best Limerick Salmon Hooks, flatted ; best
Limerick River Hooks, flatted : best Limerick Hooks, bowed ;
genuine Virginia Hooks, all sizes ; Kirby Black Fish Hooks,
all sizes; Kirby Salmon Hooks; Chestertown Hooks; best
Kirby Hooks, bowed.

LINES.— Plaited Silk Lines, Twisted Silk Lines, Silk and
Hair Fly Lines, Twisted Hair Lines, China Grass Lines, and
also a large assortment of Cotton and Linen Lines.

FISHING RODS.— Walking Cane Rods, three and four joint,
plug end ; Walking Cane Rods, three and four joint, screw

292 ADVERTISEMENT.

ferrule ; Walking Cane Rods, three and four joint, ash butts ;
Hazel Rods, three and four joint, brass ferrule, whalebone
tips ; Bamboo Rods, four joint, ringed ; finely mounted Trout
Rods, three and four joints ; Trunk Rods, five and six joints.
Also, a large assortment of common Rods always on hand.
BRASS FISHING REELS, multiplying and plain ; Fly Tackle
Books; Trout Baskets, best white gimp, all sizes; Bait
Boxes ; Ferrules, Tips and Rings, for Rods ; best quill Floats,
bound and unbound; Egg-shape Cork and Wood Floats;
large bound Floats, assorted ; Swivel and Lead Sinkers ;
Limerick and Kirby Hooks on gimp ; Limerick Trout Hooks
on single gut ; Limerick Salmon Hooks on twisted gut ; su-
perfine Kirby Hooks on gut ; Virginia Hooks on gimp ; Lime-
rick Hooks on bristles ; Kirby Hooks on hair ; fine Artificial
Salmon and Trout Flies; Black Fish Snoods, single and
double ; Artificial Minnows, of leather, tinsel and pearl ;
Artificial Grasshoppers, Frogs, Shrimps and Caterpillars;
Spoon Bait, for bay fishing; one, two, three and four hook
Gut, Grass and Hair Snoods ; Float and Deep-sea Lines, as-
sorted ; Jointed and Common Bows. ' Besides many articles
too numerous to mention, sold wholesale and retail, on the
lowest terms.

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